Attorney General Pam Bondi (justice.gov)
DOJ Announces Investigation Into Four CA Universities Over Use Of Race In Admissions
‘The Department of Justice will put an end to a shameful system in which someone’s race matters more than their ability’
By Evan Symon, March 29, 2025 8:49 am
The U.S. Department of Justice announced on Thursday that they have opened up investigations into Stanford University and three University of California universities over the use of race in admissions.
According to a statement from the DOJ, Attorney General Pamela Bondi directed the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division to begin compliance review investigations into admissions policies at Stanford, as well as UC Berkeley, UCLA, and UC Irvine. Specifically, they are looking into violations against the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which halted the usage of affirmative action programs in selecting students for admission.
“President Trump and I are dedicated to ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity across the country,” said Attorney General Bondi. “Every student in America deserves to be judged solely based on their hard work, intellect, and character, not the color of their skin.”
“The Department of Justice will put an end to a shameful system in which someone’s race matters more than their ability,” added Associate Attorney General Chad Mizelle. “Every college and university should know that illegal discrimination in admissions will be investigated and eliminated.”
In separate statements, both Stanford and the University of California said they have complied with the 2023 Supreme Court ruling. UC went a step further and said that they have banned affirmative action from being used for admissions since Prop 209 in 1996, a state ballot initiative that banned the practice statewide. However, since the DOJ specifically referred to the affirmative action violations as DEI discrimination, it could cover other areas surrounding race based admissions, something which both Stanford and UC said they were looking forward to learning about on Thursday.
“We continue to be committed to fulfilling our obligations under the law. We do not have details about today’s announcement, but we look forward to learning more about their concerns and responding to the department’s questions,” said Stanford spokesperson Dee Mostofi.
“The University of California has adhered to a ban on affirmative action in admissions since California voters approved one in the ballot initiative Proposition 209 in 1996,” added UC in a statement. “At the same time, we remain committed to expanding access for all qualified students, The UC undergraduate admissions application collects students’ race and ethnicity for statistical purposes only. This information is not shared with application reviewers and is not used for admissions.”
Before the Supreme Court ruling in 2023, California was a leading state against affirmative action usage in the country. In addition to Prop 209 in 1996, the affirmative action ban was upheld by by the state legislature in 2014 through the rejection of SCA 5 and by California voters in 2020 when 57% of voters, a greater margin than the initial 1996 vote, voted against Prop. 16, which would have repealed Prop 209.
However, with 4 of arguably California’s most prominent universities now under investigation for affirmative action and DEI admissions policies violations, many Universities across the state are concerned that the DOJ could expand their investigation to include them.
But when contacted by the Globe on Friday, the DOJ gave neither a yes nor a no to an investigation expansion.
“No further comment,” stated DOJ Office of Public Affairs Deputy Director Wyn Hornbuckle to the Globe.
In addition to the DOJ investigation, the Department of Education announced an investigation into the state student pronoun change law on Thursday as well,, continuing the promised Trump administration crackdowns on education policies in schools at every educational level in California.
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June 17, 2020 -
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Since I worked at one of the UCs since the 80s, I feel I can say that they always get caught, no one gets arrested, or disciplined, then if egregious enough it makes a headline, they say “I sorry” then study the problem to waste more time and money like CalTrans does.
Then they minimally change policy which no one reads or adheres to, until caught again, all the while pushing press releases out to Pat themselves on the back.
Then, raises or more recently, bonuses to retain star faculty to launder more money to politicians and lawyers.