Top California medical school facing lawsuit for allegedly using affirmative action despite Supreme Court ruling

Although the Supreme Court struck down race-based admissions in higher education nearly two years ago, a new lawsuit alleges the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles is blatantly flouting the court’s ruling.

The lawsuit notes that whistleblowers have come forward to report that “under the guise of ‘holistic’ review,” the medical school’s leadership “routinely and openly discuss race (and racial proxies) and use race as a factor to make admission decisions.” Race is “not only a factor but often decisive” in making admission choices, the filing claims, as black and Latino students are elevated while white and Asian students are discriminated against.

“This much is clear: UCLA’s illegal racial discrimination has harmed and is continuing to harm applicants,” the lawsuit notes. “In this race-based system, all applicants are deprived of their right to equal treatment and the opportunity to pursue their lifelong dream of becoming a doctor because of utterly arbitrary criteria.”

The lawsuit was filed by Do No Harm, an organization describing itself as dedicated to keeping “discriminatory ideologies” out of healthcare, and Students for Fair Admissions, which led the 2023 lawsuit against Harvard University, culminating in the Supreme Court striking down affirmative action. In that case, the high court noted that “racial discrimination is invidious in all contexts” and that race-based admissions “demean the dignity and worth of a person” by judging them “by ancestry instead of by his or her own merit and essential qualities.”

Students for Fair Admissions president Edward Blum has painted the UCLA case as a “sequel” to the earlier affirmative action case, the Washington Free Beacon reports. 

“This lawsuit sends an important message to every institution of higher education: Any school and administrator that uses race and racial proxies in admissions in defiance of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard will be sued,” Blum said. “University administrators in their official and personal capacities will face vigorous legal challenges if they use race and racial proxies in the admissions process.” 

The lawsuit comes as the medical school is already being probed by the Trump administration amid its racial discrimination crackdown, the outlet reported. 

When asked by The Lion about the racial discrimination lawsuit, a UCLA medical school representative said the school is “committed to fair processes in all of our programs and activities, consistent with federal and state anti-discrimination laws.” 

Yet Do No Harm, citing whistleblower accounts reported by the Free Beacon, has insisted the medical school is ignoring federal law by racially discriminating – including by giving black and Latino applicants “a pass for subpar metrics” while white and Asian students “need near perfect scores to even be considered.” 

“Do No Harm is fighting for all the students who have been racially discriminated against by UCLA under the guise of political progress,” Do No Harm chairman Stanley Goldfarb said in a statement. “All medical schools must abide by the law of the land and prioritize merit, not immutable characteristics, in admissions.” 

The group said it hopes its lawsuit will “help ensure that universities across the country think twice before trying to discriminate on the basis of race.”