UC Berkeley Law discriminated in admissions, DOJ says
The U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and the Department of Education is accusing the University of California at Berkeley School of Law of discriminating against white and Asian applicants while prioritizing Black applicants.
Wednesday’s six-page findings letter, signed by Harmeet Dhillon, head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, and addressed to the school’s attorney, states the law school’s admissions practices violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard.
“This discrimination is apparent from the significant disparity in objective academic metrics between racially preferred applicants and applicants from nonpreferred races,” it says.
The letter pointedly quoted opinion pieces written by Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, a contributing columnist for the ABA Journal, defending affirmative action, and the letter alleged he knowingly encouraged the consideration of race in admissions in violation of federal civil rights law. The letter said the department reviewed a video of Chemerinsky telling his class that the law school may consider race and diversity in hiring but may not express those opinions.
“Anytime somebody says, you know, we should really prefer this candidate over this candidate, because this person would add to diversity—don’t say that,” Chemerinsky said in the video. “You can think it, you can vote it, but our discussions are not privileged, so don’t ever articulate that that’s what you’re doing.”
Erwin Chemerinsky. (Photo by Jim Block)In a statement sent to the Journal, Chemerinsky said Berkeley Law’s admissions policy is clear that race is not considered in any way, and it “scrupulously complies with Proposition 209, federal statutes and the United States Constitution,” he adds. “Proposition 209, federal laws and the Supreme Court’s decisions do not preclude schools from pursuing diversity so long as they give no preferences based on race. Berkeley Law does not do so.”
The DOJ’s letter said data over the last five years shows the median Black admitted student at Berkeley Law had, on average, an LSAT score 5 points lower than the median white and Asian admitted students.
“In 2025, Black applicants had 5.8 times higher odds of admission than comparable white applicants with similar qualifications,” the letter alleges. It also notes the portions of the Berkeley Law application where students could discuss race.
The letter follows a federal investigation launched in March 2025 into several California schools’ admissions practices, including Berkeley Law’s.
The move is the latest salvo in the President Donald Trump’s administration’s war against diversity, equity and inclusion at law schools and universities.
The council for the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar voted Tuesday to repeal its contentious standard regarding diversity and inclusion, effective immediately, a move seen by some as necessary to retain its status as the sole national accreditor of law schools.
The vote followed an 86-page report last month from the U.S. Department of Education recommending to remove the council’s powers, and an executive order in April 2025 directing the secretary of the Education Department to assess whether to suspend or terminate the council as the government’s official law school accreditor, citing its “unlawful ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ requirements.”
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