The U.S. Department of Justice has formally accused the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, of discriminating against white and Asian applicants in its incoming classes.
Federal investigators allege that the law school violated federal civil rights laws during the 2024 and 2025 admissions cycles, in defiance of the Supreme Court’s 2023 landmark ruling that struck down race-conscious admissions at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina.
In a six-page letter sent to the university’s legal counsel, Harmeet Dhillon, head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, pointed to Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.
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The investigators cited public remarks and video recordings in which Chemerinsky allegedly discussed ways to preserve racial diversity through alternative methods and proxies.
“The evidence shows that Berkeley Law deliberately discriminates against applicants based on race,” Dhillon wrote, adding that the dean had expressed a willingness to obscure such practices if they came under scrutiny.
Investigators pointed to specific statements attributed to Chemerinsky during conferences and interviews.
Before the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision, Chemerinsky told The New Yorker that schools could substitute the explicit consideration of race with alternative “proxies for race.”
Regarding faculty hiring processes, Chemerinsky reportedly advised attendees: “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!”
Dhillon concluded that “Berkeley Law’s Dean Chemerinsky has repeatedly expressed his intention to defy the Supreme Court’s ruling in SFFA and has expressed his willingness to hide his discrimination if caught.”
According to the federal findings, application prompts specifically encouraged prospective students to explain how their backgrounds, experiences and race or ethnicity would contribute to institutional diversity.
An internal statistical review conducted by the DOJ found significant differences in admission rates after accounting for undergraduate grade-point averages and LSAT scores. According to the review, Black applicants had significantly higher odds of admission than white and Asian applicants across the 2024 and 2025 cohorts.
Federal data also indicated that the median LSAT scores of admitted Black students were roughly five points lower than those of admitted students from other demographic groups.
University leadership forcefully rejected the findings, maintaining that the law school fully complies with California’s Proposition 209, a state constitutional amendment enacted in 1996 that prohibits public institutions from considering race or ethnicity in admissions and public employment.
“The University of California, Berkeley School of Law in its admissions decisions scrupulously complies with Proposition 209, federal statutes, and the United States Constitution,” Chemerinsky said in a statement. “Our admissions policy is clear that race is not considered in any way in admissions decisions.”
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The investigation marks the second major federal inquiry targeting elite legal and medical programs within the University of California system.
Earlier, federal officials scrutinized similar practices in medical admissions at UCLA.
The Justice Department is seeking a voluntary resolution agreement to bring Berkeley Law’s administrative policies into compliance with federal law. The department warned that failure to cooperate could jeopardize millions of dollars in federal funding.