UC Berkeley Law intentionally discriminated against white, Asian applicants: Feds

UC Berkeley Law intentionally discriminated against white, Asian applicants: Feds


The Justice Department is accusing UC Berkeley Law of intentionally discriminating against white and Asian applicants — as the school’s dean allegedly discussed ways to skirt rules barring race-based admissions.

The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division concluded Wednesday that the once-elite law school violated federal civil rights law when selecting its incoming classes of 2024 and 2025, even after the Supreme Court’s landmark 2023 decision striking down race-conscious college admissions.

“The evidence shows that Berkeley Law deliberately discriminates against applicants based on race,” wrote Harmeet Dhillon, the head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, in a blistering six-page letter to the school’s attorney.


Dhillon zeroed in on Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, citing several public comments suggesting he was looking for ways to preserve racial preferences after the Supreme Court ruling.

Before the decision, Chemerinsky told The New Yorker that schools could replace the “explicit use of race” with “proxies for race,” according to the letter.



He later warned during a conference that schools should be careful about how such policies were described.

“If it’s presented with strong race neutral justifications, I think it’s much more likely to be allowed,” Chemerinsky said, according to the DOJ letter. “And I think it’s very important not to talk about it in terms of it being an attempt to circumvent the decision.”

LINK