Pacific Legal Files Lawsuit Challenging UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Race-Based Internship Program

The policy of race-based admissions to Californias’s UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland internship program is facing a very serious federal lawsuit.

To start, race-based admissions are illegal in California.

Proposition 209, a ban on affirmative action, was passed by California voters in 1996, and prohibits discrimination or preferential treatment by the state, public universities, public employment, or other public entities, and banned affirmative action policies, the Globe reported.

In 2020, voters even reaffirmed the ban on affirmative action policies and practices by voting down Proposition 16, 57% to 42%. Prop. 16 qualified for the ballot when ACA 5, authored by then-Assemblywoman Shirley Weber (D-San Diego), was passed by the California legislature in 2020. If passed, Prop. 16 would have repealed Proposition 209.

But Prop. 16 was rejected by voters so Prop. 209 stands. However, Democrats continue to push race, DEI policies, and reparations legislation. Illegally.

The UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland internship program Community Health and Adolescent Mentoring Program for Success (CHAMPS), is a high school internship program that explicitly excludes students based on race, according to nonprofit Pacific Legal Foundation.

PLF filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday challenging UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland’s CHAMPS internship program for excluding students based on race. “The program, designed to increase minority representation in healthcare, denies eligibility to students outside UCSF Health’s preferred racial groups.”

PLF reports:

In 2000, the world-renowned UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland created the Community Health and Adolescent Mentoring Program for Success (CHAMPS). Its explicit goal is to increase minority representation in healthcare by recruiting high school students interested in pursuing medical careers. 

Students shadow doctors during clinical rotations, take healthcare classes, complete hands-on projects, and receive college preparation support, such as SAT prep and application assistance.

The problem with this race-based internship program is that it also violates the equal protection guarantee of the Fourteenth Amendment – as well as California’s Prop. 209.

“The Fourteenth Amendment protects individuals from government discrimination based on arbitrary classifications like race,” PLF explains. “Excluding students from a state-funded internship program because of their race blatantly violates the Equal Protection Clause.”

The case Hooley v. Regents argues that the policy violates the Equal Protection Clause and California’s Prop. 209, which bans racial preferences in public education and seeks to ensure equal opportunity for all students.

PLF continues explaining the discriminatory CHAMPS program: 

UCSF officials can certainly create internships to help prepare students for healthcare careers. They just can’t use race to favor some applicants at the expense of others. 

While the program is highly competitive and has rigorous academic and application standards, there is an additional requirement unrelated to academics or career preparation: Only students from UCSF Health’s preferred racial groups are eligible to apply. Other students are explicitly excluded.

“Equal opportunity means exactly that: Every student should have the chance to compete for programs like CHAMPS based on merit, not their skin color,” said Andrew Quinio, an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation. “Students who dream of a medical career should not be excluded because of their race. UCSF can create opportunities to inspire future healthcare leaders, but it cannot use race to decide who participates.”

“Now, a qualified high school student, G.H.*, is challenging the program’s discriminatory eligibility criteria. Represented at no charge by Pacific Legal Foundation, she has filed a federal lawsuit, arguing that CHAMPS violates the U.S. Constitution and California law.”

The case is Hooley v. Regents of the University of California and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland.

* PLF’s client is a minor using the pseudonym G.H. for privacy.