Reuters reports that the U.S. Justice and Education Departments alleged that admissions practices at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law unlawfully favored African American applicants and discriminated against white and Asian candidates.

The U.S. Department of Justice press release on the investigation state that

“The U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division (DOJ) and the U.S. Department of Education (ED) announced today joint investigative findings that the University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Berkeley Law) deliberately discriminates against white and Asian students in its admissions process. Berkeley Law’s discriminatory conduct violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race or color, and the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (SFFA), which banned race discrimination in higher education.

Berkeley Law School’s deliberate efforts to circumvent the Supreme Court’s decision in SFFA demonstrate a complete disregard for the rule of law,' said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. The Department will continue to aggressively pursue compliance from schools who attempt to racially manipulate their student bodies in violation of federal law.’”

According to Reuters, Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law, said that the school’s “admissions policy is clear that race is not considered in any way in admissions decisions.”