Trump Admin. Says Berkeley Law, Duke Med Discriminated

The Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services announced this week that they had determined the University of California, Berkeley’s law school and Duke University’s medical school each intentionally discriminated against white and Asian applicants in their admissions practices. The DOJ and the Department of Education jointly investigated Berkeley, while HHS investigated Duke.

The investigations are the Trump administration’s sixth and seventh findings of admissions discrimination, including findings released last month about Duke’s law school. So far, the administration has launched at least 28 investigations into admissions practices at universities. Twenty-six of those investigations are looking into medical school admissions, and 15 of the medical schools being investigated have not yet been named.

As with previous medical school investigations, HHS’s letter to Duke pointed out that the average MCAT scores of admitted Black and Hispanic students were lower than the average scores of admitted white and Asian students, noting that Black and Hispanic applicants were both admitted at higher rates than their white and Asian counterparts.

Department officials also argued that the institution intended to discriminate, based on internal communications in which administrators discussed how to maintain student diversity following the Supreme Court’s 2023 ban on affirmative action in admissions. Those strategies included considering minority applicants’ discussions of challenges they’d faced in their essays, which Chief Justice John Roberts said was acceptable in the ruling.

The findings of discrimination at Berkeley’s law school rely on the same central arguments. The DOJ’s letter to Berkeley uses Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky’s public support of affirmative action in interviews, opinion articles and university materials as evidence that Berkeley intentionally discriminated. The DOJ also notes places in the Berkeley Law application where students are encouraged to discuss their race.

The LSAT scores of students admitted to the law school also differed by race, according to the DOJ; among the combined 2024 and 2025 incoming classes, half of admitted Black students had scores that were lower than the scores of 95 percent of admitted white students

Some civil rights experts have criticized the Trump administration’s admissions investigations for not being thorough enough and relying too heavily on statistical evidence. In the letter to Duke’s medical school, the HHS Office for Civil Rights noted that it offered the university an opportunity to explain the gaps in MCAT scores, but that officials had “failed to respond” to that inquiry.

“OCR found that Duke School of Medicine intentionally discriminates against applicants by granting and denying admission based on an applicant’s race, breaking federal anti-discrimination laws. In the Trump Administration, we are committed to ensuring that every applicant at a medical school is treated equally. Any kind of discrimination through the admissions process is unacceptable,” said Paula M. Stannard, director of the HHS Office for Civil Rights, in the department’s announcement.

The Duke School of Medicine investigation is the first of its kind to be completed by HHS; the Departments of Justice and Education have conducted the other 27. In its announcement, HHS noted that it has given the university almost $3.5 billion in funds over the past five years.

In a statement, a Duke spokesperson said the university is reviewing HHS’s letter. “Duke is committed to complying with the law and will continue to do so in a manner that is consistent with our academic mission,” they added.