The Trump administration on Wednesday accused UC Berkeley Law School of illegally discriminating against white and Asian applicants, the latest in a wave of such allegations it has leveled against graduate programs in California following a 2023 Supreme Court decision barring the consideration of race in college admissions.
A joint investigation of the Department of Justice and Department of Education cited questions on the law school’s application form and disparities in standardized test scores among demographic groups in arguing that the school’s admissions process is discriminatory.
It also accused law school dean Erwin Chemerinsky of intentionally seeking to circumvent the Supreme Court’s ruling in Students for Fair Education v. Harvard, citing his public statement that the school would “aggressively pursue” a diverse student body and faculty.
The finding illustrates the Trump administration’s broad interpretation of that case, in which the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina that it said trafficked in stereotypes and negatively impacted Asian American applicants. The court ruled that universities could still consider applicants’ essays discussing how race affected their lives, “so long as that discussion is concretely tied to a quality of character or unique ability that the particular applicant can contribute to the university.”
