The University of California, San Francisco has rejected a Justice Department finding that its medical school discriminated against white and Asian applicants, setting up a possible federal lawsuit over how the institution evaluates race after the Supreme Court’s 2023 admissions decisions.
The department told UCSF on Tuesday that its review of admissions from 2023 through 2025 found that Black and Hispanic applicants were admitted despite, on average, weaker academic records than white and Asian applicants who were rejected. It asked the university to enter a voluntary compliance agreement and set an October 2 deadline for a response.
UCSF said every applicant receives an individualized review centered on academic excellence and that it disagrees with the government’s conclusion. The university said it would continue discussions in an effort to resolve the matter.
No court has ruled that UCSF violated federal law. The department’s letter is an enforcement finding and notice of intended litigation, not a judgment. If negotiations fail, the government says it will sue.
The dispute will test how universities document holistic admissions after the Supreme Court barred the race-conscious programs used by Harvard and the University of North Carolina. Schools may still consider an applicant’s experiences, including how race affected an individual life, but may not recreate racial preferences through proxies. The legal question will turn on evidence about UCSF’s actual decision-making, not simply differences in average test scores or grades among groups.
