The Trump Justice Department has determined that UC Davis School of Medicine used race in admissions in violation of federal civil rights law, making it the second University of California medical school this year to face such a finding.
The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has issued findings that the University of California, Davis School of Medicine violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by using race as a factor in its admissions process, UC Davis confirmed in a statement published Wednesday. The ruling marks the second time in weeks the Trump administration has cited a University of California medical program for civil rights violations, following a May finding against UCLA, and comes as the department has opened 15 additional medical school probes nationwide.
UC Davis offered no concessions in its response. "We are disappointed by the report and its conclusions," the university said in its statement. The school "strongly disagrees with any characterization of its admissions practices as discriminatory or inconsistent with applicable law" and described its admissions review as "rigorous, individualized, and merit-based." The university said it remains committed to complying with federal and state antidiscrimination laws, even as it contested the department's central conclusion.
The legal standard is not in dispute. Title VI bars discrimination based on race by any institution receiving federal financial assistance. That prohibition was reinforced by the Supreme Court's 2023 ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which ended race-conscious admissions at American colleges and universities nationwide and supplied the Trump administration the legal footing for its enforcement campaign. UC Davis's medical school, which trains physicians for communities across California with the help of federal financial assistance, falls squarely within the statute's reach.
The UC Davis finding lands five weeks after the Justice Department announced its conclusion on UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine. That investigation, which the DOJ described as a year-long review, determined that UCLA leadership "intentionally selected applicants based on their race," according to the department's May 6 press release. Admitted Black and Hispanic applicants consistently showed lower academic qualifications than white and Asian counterparts on average, the DOJ found, citing that gap as evidence of racial preference rather than merit-based selection. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, who oversees the Civil Rights Division, said the UCLA process had been "focused on racial demographics at the expense of merit and excellence."
Dhillon has made medical school admissions a signature enforcement priority. On June 4, the Civil Rights Division announced it was opening 15 new investigations into additional medical schools for potential race discrimination in admissions. The department did not publicly name all 15 institutions, but confirmed that every school under investigation receives millions in federal taxpayer funding, the lever that gives the government jurisdiction under Title VI. "Under this Justice Department, we will continue to protect American students from discriminatory and illegal preferences in admissions, especially in professions as critical as medicine, where quality of training should be the top priority," Dhillon said in the announcement.
Separate investigations into Stanford University's medical school, Ohio State University, and the University of California, San Diego were already underway before the June 4 announcement, according to Higher Ed Dive and NBC San Diego. That puts at least four institutions with UC or California ties either under active investigation or facing completed findings in a matter of months.
What UC Davis Faces Next
A findings letter from the Civil Rights Division does not end the matter. Institutions that receive such a determination typically enter a negotiation period with the department, during which they can agree to a voluntary compliance plan committing to change their admissions practices. If those talks fail, the Justice Department can pursue litigation or move to cut off federal funding. For a research hospital like UC Davis Health, that threat is not abstract: the university draws on National Institutes of Health grants, clinical research contracts, and substantial Medicare and Medicaid revenue tied to its academic medical center.
UC Davis frames its admissions model as one built around serving California's underserved communities, using holistic review of socioeconomic background and community engagement rather than what it characterizes as explicit racial preference. The DOJ reads that approach differently, and UC Davis will now have to defend that distinction in direct negotiations with the Civil Rights Division. Whether the two sides reach a compliance agreement or end up in court, the outcome will set a precedent for how medical schools across California assemble their incoming classes for years ahead.
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