Trump administration officials opened new Justice Department inquiries into how race is considered in admissions at three U.S. medical schools, extending a broader push aimed at universities the administration says are violating limits on how race can be weighed in admissions decisions.
The Justice Department opened the investigations on Wednesday into possible discrimination at the medical schools of Stanford University, Ohio State and the University of California, San Diego, Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, announced on X, according to the Associated Press. The investigations were first reported by The New York Times.
Dhillon wrote to Ohio State that the Justice Department was seeking documents related to “the use or lack of use of race” in evaluating applicants, the report said. The Justice Department also sought all applicant-level admissions data, along with reviews by the school of admissions trends or outcomes by race.
A separate, five-page document accompanying the notices details the records the government requested, including data on standardized test scores, information collected or inferred on race and ethnicity, and admissions decisions for each applicant going back to the incoming class that started in 2019, AP reported.
Ohio State spokesperson Benjamin Johnson said the university is compliant with state and federal regulations and legal rulings regarding admissions and that it has received the attached letter and will respond appropriately, AP reported in a statement. UC San Diego said in a written statement that it was reviewing the Justice Department’s notice and that it is committed to fair processes in all of its programs and activities, including admissions, consistent with federal and state anti-discrimination laws. Stanford School of Medicine spokesperson Cecilia Arradaza also said in a written statement that the school was reviewing the letter and that it prohibits unlawful discrimination on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.
AP reported that it was not immediately clear why the three medical schools were targeted. The report said the Supreme Court ruling that banned the use of affirmative action in admissions allows colleges to consider how race has shaped students’ lives if applicants share that information in admissions essays, and that Trump has raised concerns that colleges have used personal statements and other “proxies” to consider race, which the administration views as illegal discrimination.
The new investigations were part of a wider pattern of scrutiny directed at higher education, following earlier Trump administration pressure on undergraduate admissions at selective colleges that demanded data collection tied to a 2023 Supreme Court decision limiting affirmative action. Earlier this month, a coalition of 17 Democratic state attorneys general filed a lawsuit challenging a Trump administration policy requiring higher education institutions to collect data showing they are not considering race in admissions, and a federal judge in Massachusetts was weighing whether to block the demand, AP reported.