The Justice Department said Thursday that UCLA School of Law intentionally discriminated against white and Asian applicants in the classes that entered in 2023, 2024, and 2025, and that the discrimination is ongoing. The Civil Rights Division said those decisions violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars race discrimination at colleges that receive federal money.

The division also cited the Supreme Court's 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. The department describes that ruling as a ban on race discrimination in admissions. The Court held that the race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina were unlawful.

Thursday's announcement was an eight-page investigative findings letter. It was not a complaint, and it was not a court order.

What the department says it found

The department opened the investigation on April 18, 2025, and said it reviewed internal documents and seven years of application data.

Investigators said UCLA Law rejected white and Asian applicants who had the same LSAT scores as Black and Hispanic applicants the school accepted. The department added a further claim: lower-scoring white and Asian applicants would have been admitted if they had been Black or Hispanic.

For 2024 and 2025 combined, the department said, half of the admitted Black applicants had LSAT scores at or below 90% of the admitted white applicants. The public notice did not include the score tables, the size of each group, or the method behind the comparison. Those figures remain the department's until UCLA, or a filing in court, puts numbers of its own on the record.

The school's statement on Thursday did not take up the score comparison. It defended the review without offering a different tally.

Essays, prompts, and an open house

The department said that after the Supreme Court ruling, UCLA Law's application uses personal statements and essay prompts "designed to elicit information about race." Admissions staff, the findings say, told prospective applicants how to reveal their race in those sections of the file.

The department placed that instruction in what it called race-based recruitment, including the school's annual Diversity Admissions Open House. The announcement quoted no prompt and named no employee. On the department's account, the prompts were a way to learn an applicant's race after the Court had barred race-conscious admissions at Harvard and North Carolina.

The finding is aimed at the school, not at applicants who answered the questions they were given. UCLA Law's public reply does not describe its essay questions or the open house.

A ban already in California law

UCLA is covered by a state rule older than the 2023 case. On Nov. 5, 1996, voters approved Proposition 209, adding a section to the California Constitution. "The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting." The section treats the University of California as part of the state.

The school cited that measure by name. "UCLA School of Law is committed to making admissions decisions in compliance with all applicable laws, including the California Constitution and Proposition 209, federal statutes, and the U.S. Constitution," it said Thursday.

The department is not proceeding under the state constitution. The finding rests on federal law. Law schools that receive federal financial assistance must follow Title VI, and the Civil Rights Division says the Harvard decision now supplies the meaning of that ban. Proposition 209 is the separate limit UCLA says it already follows.

The third law school since August

UCLA is the third law school to draw this kind of finding since August. On Aug. 6 the Civil Rights Division said Duke University School of Law had intentionally discriminated based on race in granting and denying admission to its 2023, 2024, and 2025 classes. The department sought a voluntary resolution and said it would sue if talks failed. A Duke spokesperson said: "We are reviewing the letter and its conclusions carefully. Duke is committed to complying with the law and will continue to do so in a manner that is consistent with our academic mission."

On Sept. 9 the Justice Department and the Education Department jointly said Berkeley Law deliberately discriminates against white and Asian applicants, for at least the classes that entered in 2024 and 2025. They sought a voluntary agreement. That announcement did not include a filed complaint. The UCLA letter follows the same sequence: a written finding, then settlement talks, with a lawsuit described only as what follows if talks fail.

A findings letter, not a case

The letter issued Thursday notifies the university of investigative findings. It does not open a lawsuit. The department said that where it finds a violation, it will enter settlement negotiations. If those efforts fail, it said, it will file suit. As of Thursday's announcement, no such suit had been filed.

What that step looks like is already on record at the same university. The department has issued similar findings against the medical schools at UCLA, UC Davis, UC San Diego and UC San Francisco, and it is suing UCLA's medical school over the same theory.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, who leads the Civil Rights Division, said in the department's release: "Like many of its peer institutions, UCLA Law School runs a two-tiered admissions system whose academic bar for acceptance shifts up or down depending on the color of your skin. The use of race as a thumb on the scale that helps or disadvantages any student is illegal. The Department will continue to enforce equal treatment under the law everywhere — including in our nation's law schools."

UCLA Law answered the same day through Orli Belman, assistant dean of communications. "Students are admitted through a comprehensive, merit-based review process that considers each applicant's achievements and experiences," the school said. "We are confident in our process."