Trump joins lawsuit against UCLA medical school over racial discrimination

The Trump administration is accusing California’s top public medical school of racial discrimination in its admissions process, announcing plans to join a federal lawsuit.

UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine engages in “racial balancing” and “intentional discrimination on the basis of race and ethnicity in the admissions process,” giving preference to black applicants over Asian and white students, according to court documents.

The Trump administration wants to join the lawsuit brought by Do No Harm, a group opposing identity-based policies in medicine, and Students for Fair Admissions, which previously filed a case that led to the Supreme Court ruling on race in college admissions.

“UCLA’s illegal racial discrimination has harmed and is continuing to harm applicants, including Plaintiffs and their members,” the filing adds.

The Justice Department argued that UCLA Med not only “violates the U.S. Constitution, but stigmatizes minority applicants as less qualified, and causes the medical school to admit applicants who are substantially less qualified to become medical doctors.”

Kelly Mahoney, a white university applicant, who claims she was rejected by UCLA’s medical school because of her race, is also a plaintiff, the Los Angeles Times reported.

In June 2023, the Supreme Court effectively ended affirmative action, ruling that colleges cannot consider race directly in admissions under the 14th Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

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