Politics
Justice Department zeroes in on UCLA for alleged illegal DEI admissions as elite school crackdown expands
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The Justice Department has concluded that UCLA’s medical school engaged in illegal race-based discrimination in admissions, alleging the school favored Black and Hispanic applicants in violation of federal law.
The finding follows a yearlong federal investigation and marks the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s push to crack down on diversity-based admissions practices across U.S. universities. A lawsuit filed by medical advocacy group Do No Harm prompted the Justice Department’s investigation into UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine.
“UCLA’s admissions process has been focused on racial demographics at the expense of merit and excellence — allowing racial politics to distract the school from the vital work of training great doctors.” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Racism in admissions is both illegal and anti-American, and this Department will not allow it to continue.”
The Justice Department investigation unveiled that UCLA’s medical school intentionally selected minority medical students based upon the presumption that minority patients will receive better care if they are under the treatment of a minority doctor. However, the Justice Department found that the medical school’s focus on selecting minority medical students resulted in the selected students having significantly lower GPAs and MCAT scores on average than their White and Asian counterparts.
UCLA MEDICAL SCHOOL HIT WITH CLASS-ACTION LAWSUIT FOR ALLEGEDLY STILL USING RACE-BASED ADMISSIONS PROCESS
Harmeet Dhillon speaks at the National Conservative Convention in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 2, 2025. (Dominic Gwinn/Middle East Images/AFP)
Amid its investigation, the Justice Department found that David Geffen School of Medicine’s executive director of admissions distributed a document outlining how the medical school could still achieve its “diversity goals” to admission committee members. This document also stated the theory that “diversity” of healthcare workers will be crucial in improving healthcare outcomes for Black and Hispanic patients and that denying Black and Hispanic students’ admission could cause the deaths of future Black and Hispanic patients.
The medical school has also adopted a “holistic” approach in its admissions process, implying that factors such as “citizenship,” “distance travelled,” “relationship status,” “cultural events,” “race,” “national origin” and “sexual orientation” are all taken into consideration, according to an Association of American Medical Colleges model used by the school.
MEDICAL WATCHDOG CHALLENGES KEY STUDY USED TO JUSTIFY DEI HEALTH POLICIES: ‘SCIENTIFICALLY UNSOUND’
At least 58 of America’s 100 most prestigious medical colleges and universities require student training or coursework on ideas related to critical race theory, according to CriticalRace.org. (iStock)
Prospective medical students of UCLA’s medical school also engaged in a PREview Exam, a multiple-choice test, which specifically asked applicants if they were part of a marginalized group.
“By design, this question asks Black and Hispanic applicants to reveal their race so that DGSOM can know and consider it,” the Justice Department report stated.
The Justice Department found major disparities between the test scores of White and Asian students and Hispanic and Black students admitted in the 2023 and 2024 cohorts.
In the 2023 cohort, the median MCAT scores among Black and Hispanic test takers were at the 68th percentile, while those who did not report their race scored at the 96th percentile.
GPAs also show a significant gap, with the lowest median (Hispanic) trailing the highest median (Asian) by 0.26 grade points.
A female doctor in scrubs types on a digital tablet while completing a checklist. (Cameron Prins/Getty Images)
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And in the 2024 cohort, Hispanic students scores averaged in the 66 percentile, Black students in the 72 percentile; while those who declined to share their race scored at the 92 percentile.
“Federal law and the Supreme Court precedent are clear: Race discrimination has no place in our nation’s institutions of higher learning,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli for the Central District of California. “The pattern of illegal and odious conduct by UCLA’s medical school is abhorrent to our Constitution and our nation’s founding principles.”
The conclusion of the investigation comes as the Trump administration launched investigations into the admission process of medical schools at Stanford University, Ohio State University, and the University of California, San Diego in March.
Fox News Digital reached out to UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine for comment.
new video loaded: Reflecting Pool Turns Green, Paint Peels After Renovation
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transcript
Reflecting Pool Turns Green, Paint Peels After Renovation
Algae blooms have hit the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which underwent a $14.2 million repair project. Blue paint appeared to be chipping from the bottom.
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“The reflecting pool is greener than I have ever seen it before due to algae.” “I was expecting to see blue, but green is O.K.” “Honestly, I don’t think you can fight mother nature.”
By Julie Yoon, Jackeline Luna and Alisa Shodiyev Kaff
June 19, 2026
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House GOP Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain, R-Mich., rebuked a school board in Richmond, Michigan, after some of its members tried to remove a conservative colleague for missing meetings while on military deployment to the Middle East.
Ray Stier, who received an American flag and a copy of the Congressional Record from McClain on Thursday as a commendation of his work, had been on deployment, attending board meetings remotely, but eventually lost virtual access.
That’s when the board called for his removal, citing a “disservice” caused by his absence.
“One of the board members’ family was taking to social media and putting out misinformation about myself and my wife and things that were not factually accurate and then ultimately calling for my resignation and prompting others to reach out to the district to call for my recall,” Stier recounted.
PARENTS SAY THEY’RE RUNNING FOR LOCAL SCHOOL BOARDS TO FIGHT ‘POISONOUS’ CRITICAL RACE THEORY
House GOP Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain, R-Mich., left, pictured alongside Ray Stier, a school board member in Richmond, Michigan. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images; office of Lisa McClain)
The moment is just the most recent clash between Republicans and school boards over policies that, in their view, are gatekeeping schools against diversity of thought and accountability.
“I think education is extremely important and vital,” McClain told Fox News Digital.
“And educators and administrators need to teach children how to think, not what to think. It’s about time that administrators begin to get held accountable for their actions. Good actions and bad actions.”
McClain’s meeting with Stier comes on the heels of a congressional hearing last week where she grilled a superintendent from Virginia over student privacy policy, probing if those policies were being unevenly applied to favor transgender students.
VIRGINIA SCHOOL DISTRICT SLAPPED WITH COMPLAINT ALLEGING NEW CLAIMS IN VIRAL TRANS LOCKER ROOM FIGHT
Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., leaves a House Republican Conference meeting at the Capitol Hill Club on Feb. 28, 2023. (Tom Williams/ CQ Roll Call via Getty Images)
“The victims got a 10-day suspension and the biological female that did the filming got a one-day suspension,” McClain said, referring to an incident at Stone Bridge High School in Loudoun County where students had been reprimanded for filming in a locker room.
“How does that make sense?”
In Stier’s case, McClain questioned whether the board had targeted Stier on account of just his deployment overseas. Stierhad clashed with the board after learning that some of the district’s bathroom policies would have allowed fourth-grade students to use the same bathroom as transgender eighth-grade boys.
“Prior to him filling the seat, the seat was open for two months,” McClain observed. So that logical argument doesn’t exactly make sense to me; it doesn’t really hold a lot of water.”
MICHIGAN PARENT WANTS TRUMP TO ACT AFTER DAUGHTER SHARES LOCKER ROOM WITH TRANS-ATHLETE
House GOP Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain, R-Mich., left, pictured alongside Richmond, Michigan school board member Ray Stier right. (Office of Lisa McClain)
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For his own part, Stier believes his case will refocus attention on the importance of the school board and its membership.
“My goal is to continue being an advocate for the community. One of the good things that I think came out of this was that it got so much attention that some of the community members who were unaware of the dynamics that were not being brought to light,” Stier said.
California’s political watchdog commission on Thursday finalized a $31,500 fine against Gov. Gavin Newsom, alleging that the Democratic leader failed to report three dozen behested payments totaling $5.5 million mostly to support wildfire recovery by the deadline under state law.
The Political Reform Act requires elected officials to disclose payments of $5,000 or more that they solicit or direct others to give to a charitable, legislative or governmental purpose within 30 days.
The California Fair Political Practices Commission said 34 of the violations were for failing to report on time that Newsom and his staff directed outreach from companies and foundations that wanted to help after the Los Angeles wildfires to the California Fire Foundation. The nonprofit was started in 1987 by the California Professional Firefighters to support the families of fallen firefighters and communities impacted by fire.
The donations include $1 million from the Chuck Lorre Foundation and $500,000 apiece from Lockheed Martin, the Anthem Blue Cross Foundation and BlackRock, among others gifts.
The governor also failed in 2024 to report on time two behested payments, totaling $100,000 from the Schmidt Family Foundation and Schwab Charitable Funds to the Institute for Local Government, a nonprofit within the League of California Cities.
The commission said the governor reported all of the payments “prior to public discovery” or contact from its enforcement division, which it considered a mitigating factor. Newsom also signed the stipulation and agreed to the fine.
Tara Gallegos, a spokesperson for Newsom’s office, said the issue involved late paperwork at a time when the governor’s staff was focused on emergency response and supporting survivors. She also underscored the fact that the reports were filed before he was contact by the FPPC.
Gallegos said the fine is unrelated to an alleged investigation into the governor and his wife by the Department of Justice, which Newsom announced this week.
Newsom alleged Monday that Trump is using the government as a political weapon to target him and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom. Newsom announced the investigation after he learned that the FBI and Internal Revenue Service asked his associates questions about nonprofits and businesses related to the couple.
The governor’s office characterized the investigation as a fishing expedition. The Trump administration declined to comment.
A source familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly, said two federal probes have been going on for about a year, and that they originated not from Washington, D.C., but from conversations between whistleblowers and federal prosecutors based in Sacramento. The probes are linked to Newsom’s former chief-of-staff, Dana Williamson, and Siebel Newsom’s taxes, the source said.
The FPPC violations mark the second time Newsom has reported payments late, which increased his penalty for the new infractions. The commission fined Newsom in 2024 for failing to timely report 18 payments totaling $14.4 million.
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