The Department of Justice just dropped a bomb on one of the most prestigious medical schools in the country — concluding after a year-long investigation that the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA has been intentionally discriminating against applicants based on race. Not alleged. Not suspected. Confirmed. Your future surgeon may have been chosen by a DEI committee instead of a merit committee, and now the feds have the receipts.
Sleep tight, America.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division didn’t mince words. “UCLA’s admissions process has been focused on racial demographics at the expense of merit and excellence,” Dhillon said. She noted that highly qualified white and Asian students were denied admission on the basis of their race. Not on the basis of their grades. Not their MCAT scores. Not their research. Their skin color.
The investigation, conducted jointly by the Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, found that admitted Black and Hispanic applicants had consistently lower academic qualifications than their white and Asian counterparts. That’s not diversity. That’s discrimination with a PR department.
First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli put it plainly: “Federal law and the Supreme Court precedent are clear: Race discrimination has no place in our nation’s institutions.” You’d think that would be obvious. You’d think the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Harvard case would have settled this. But UCLA apparently read that decision and thought, “Doesn’t apply to us.”
This story has a hero, by the way, and it’s not a politician. The Washington Free Beacon — specifically staff writer Aaron Sibarium — had been publishing explosive investigative reports on UCLA’s admissions practices for years. The DOJ investigation validates everything the Free Beacon uncovered. While the mainstream media was busy writing puff pieces about “holistic admissions,” Sibarium was digging through the data and finding a racial spoils system hiding behind progressive language.
The DOJ found that UCLA justified its race-based selections with the belief that patients receive better care from same-race doctors. Think about that for a second. A medical school — a place that’s supposed to be the pinnacle of scientific thinking — was sorting applicants by skin color based on a theory that has nothing to do with surgical skill, diagnostic ability, or medical knowledge. That’s not medicine. That’s astrology with a lab coat.
The feds aren’t just writing a stern letter, either. The DOJ is seeking to join a lawsuit filed by the Virginia-based organization Do No Harm, a proposed class-action suit contending that UCLA continues to practice race-conscious admissions in defiance of the Supreme Court.
UCLA, for its part, issued the kind of response you’d expect from a bureaucracy caught red-handed. A spokesperson insisted their admissions process “is based on merit” and that they’re “confident in our practices.” Sure you are. The DOJ just spent a year proving otherwise, but you’re confident. That’s like a guy standing in a puddle insisting it isn’t raining.
This is a victory — plain and simple. The woke medical establishment thought they were untouchable. They thought they could ignore the Supreme Court, play God with admissions, and nobody would notice. But the Free Beacon noticed. The DOJ noticed. And now UCLA gets to explain to a federal court why the best and brightest were turned away because they were the wrong color.
Meritocracy isn’t just a slogan. It’s supposed to be the deal. Especially when lives are on the line.
