EXCLUSIVE — A conservative legal group is urging the Justice Department to investigate Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis over what it calls one of the most extreme “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” regimes in American higher education.
America First Legal, a nonprofit legal organization founded by President Donald Trump’s top adviser Stephen Miller, filed a sweeping civil rights complaint Monday alleging the school operates a system of “systemic, intentional, and ongoing” discrimination based on race, sex, and other protected traits. The group is requesting immediate enforcement action from the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.
“WashU has transformed its medical school into a DEI indoctrination training camp,” said AFL counsel Megan Redshaw in a statement. “This isn’t compliance with the law — it’s contempt for it. WashU is far more egregious than Harvard or UNC because its unlawful discrimination extends beyond admissions and pollutes every corner of medical education.”
The complaint alleges violations of the Civil Rights Act, Title IX, and Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, as well as multiple executive orders signed by President Donald Trump prohibiting race- and sex-based policies in federally funded institutions. Among the policies highlighted are a “holistic review” admissions process that evaluates applicants using subjective criteria such as “lived experiences” and “social mission alignment,” a framework AFL says is designed to use racial proxies while evading the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. That decision barred universities from using race as an admissions criterion.
On Exhibit 43 of the 117-page complaint, AFL highlighted an MIR Summer Research Program application that asked applicants to check off whether they qualify “as a member of an underrepresented minority.”
The complaint also highlights a long term pattern of the school promoting DEI ideology dating back to 2020. An Instagram account from the college’s Division of Dermatology posted on Oct. 17, 2020 an image of Ibram X. Kendi’s How To Be An Antiracist, promoting it as a book of discussion for a resident book club at the time. In May last year, the college was honored with a “diversity, equity & inclusion award” by the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education.
The complaint also documents more than 30 “pipeline” and “pathway” programs run by WashU Medicine’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, which explicitly prioritize applicants from preferred identity groups beginning in middle school. The school’s Internal Medicine residency program reportedly increased its share of underrepresented minority enrollees from 9.7% to 27% in just three years in an effort to “promote equity in hiring,” according to a since-removed section of its website.
Following the filing, WashU Medicine quietly removed a “Progress” section from its DEI office page on its website. Before its deletion, the page touted an 83% increase in representation of underrepresented minorities since 2017 and a 46% increase in women.
WashU, which has received more than $3 billion in funding from the Department of Health and Human Services since 2021, could face penalties if the DOJ deems it to be violating federal law.
A spokesperson for the Justice Department declined to comment, and the Washington Examiner did not hear back from representatives for WashU Medicine.