The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has launched an investigation into the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, alleging that the institution may be employing race-conscious admissions practices, according to a report by The California Post.
The DOJ's Civil Rights Division has cited public statements by UC Berkeley Law Dean Edwin Chemerinsky, who suggested that institutions might seek "proxies for race" while maintaining "strong race neutral justifications." The department's findings are detailed in a six-page letter, which reportedly uses Chemerinsky's own words as evidence.
According to the DOJ, UC Berkeley Law's application process may have included prompts for students to explain how they would "contribute diversity" to the campus, thereby signaling their race. The application also allegedly included an option to check an identity box with a "decline to state" choice. The DOJ further claims that Black students were disproportionately accepted compared to Asian or white applicants with similar academic qualifications and test scores.
Chemerinsky has defended the university, stating that pursuing diversity is legal as long as there are no explicit racial preferences. The California Post article questions the practical distinction between pursuing diversity and using race in admissions, suggesting they are fundamentally the same.
This investigation into UC Berkeley Law comes after a series of accusations against California universities, both public and private, for allegedly using race in admissions. These allegations come in defiance of California's Proposition 209 and Proposition 16, as well as the Supreme Court's 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. Harvard.
The article also references a separate incident at UCLA, where Chancellor Julio Frenk condemned a campus event on 9/11 that featured a lawyer associated with al-Qaeda. The author suggests this event is indicative of a broader trend of declining standards at the university, extending beyond admissions to academic integrity.