The Department of Justice announced Wednesday that it found the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine guilty of racially discriminating against its applicants.
The determination concludes a six-month investigation by the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division into Davis Med’s admissions practices, which found the school guilty of violating a landmark 2023 Supreme Court decision that banned affirmative action in university admissions.
In the Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College decision, the court argued Harvard University violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by discriminating against Asian American and white applicants in favor of other racial groups in violation of the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause.
“Davis Med’s actions reflect both unabashed contempt for the rule of law and plain disregard for the potential public health consequences of putting race over merit, skill, and competence,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division in a release. “The Department will not allow schools to violate federal law without consequence.”
If Davis Med fails to comply with federal law, the DOJ said it will sue the school.
The investigation found Davis Med guilty of intentionally circumventing the 2023 Supreme Court decision, with the announcement alleging Davis Med leaders “openly boasted about ‘skirting’ the Supreme Court’s ruling by using certain class-based ‘socioeconomic variables’ or ‘disadvantages’ as proxies for race.”
The DOJ said the medical school created a “Davis Scale” when determining admissions, which unlawfully ranked applicants on perceived disadvantages while “strategically adjusting the impact of his or her GPA and MCAT scores.” Thanks to the “Davis Scale,” Davis Med became the “third most racially diverse medical school in the country, behind only historically black universities,” the press release reads.
Data from 2023 to 2025 show the school was so racially biased that 93% of white and certain Asian medical students had MCAT scores matched or above those of their black colleagues, with black and Hispanic students admitted at rates up to six times higher than white and Asian students, while having consistently lower academic qualifications.
The news comes soon after the DOJ announced investigations into alleged race-based discrimination at 15 medical schools as part of the Trump administration’s emphasis on higher education reform.
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UC Davis rejected the findings as inaccurate in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
“We are disappointed by the report and its conclusions. UC Davis School of Medicine strongly disagrees with any characterization of its admissions practices as discriminatory or inconsistent with applicable law,” the school said. “The report’s findings do not accurately reflect the school’s rigorous, individualized, and merit-based admissions process and our firm commitment to complying with applicable federal and state antidiscrimination laws. UC Davis is fully committed to meeting the critical healthcare needs of California, particularly those in underserved and under-resourced areas.”