By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, Jan 28 (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday it was joining a lawsuit that alleges the use of race as a factor in admissions at the University of California Los Angeles’ David Geffen School of Medicine.
The underlying lawsuit against UCLA was brought by several groups, including Students for Fair Admissions, the Justice Department said in a statement.
The University of California system, of which UCLA is a part, has previously said it stopped using race as a factor in admissions after the practice was banned by a state law passed in the mid-1990s.
The institution has said its undergraduate application process collects data on race and ethnicity “for statistical purposes only and they are not used for admission.”
A spokesperson of the David Geffen School of Medicine said on Wednesday that it did not comment on pending litigation and that the medical school was “committed to fair processes” in all programs and activities, including admissions, in line with federal and state anti-discrimination laws.
The University of California system has been sued by a student group for alleged racial discrimination in admissions by favoring Black and Hispanic applicants over Asian American and white applicants.
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected in June 2023 affirmative action at colleges and universities, as it struck down race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina.
The administration of President Donald Trump has targeted U.S. universities over a range of issues like diversity practices, climate initiatives, transgender policies and pro-Palestinian protests against U.S. ally Israel’s assault on Gaza.
Trump had frozen some federal grants for UCLA last year but a judge ordered the Trump administration in September to restore those funds.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Jasper Ward in Washington; Editing by Franklin Paul and Tom Hogue)
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