By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, May 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday admissions practices at UCLA's medical school were biased in favor of Black and Hispanic applicants, citing findings of a probe as the Trump administration continues its crackdown on diversity policies at colleges.
The University of California Los Angeles' David Geffen School of Medicine said it was "carefully reviewing" the Justice Department's report and reiterated that its admissions process "is based on merit
and grounded in a rigorous, comprehensive review of each applicant."
The school said it was "confident in our practices."
The Justice Department joined a lawsuit in January that alleged the use of race as a factor in admissions at the medical school.
The University of California system, of which UCLA is a part, has previously said it stopped using race as a factor in admissions after the practice was banned by a state law passed in the mid-1990s.
"The investigation showed that, on average, admitted Black and Hispanic applicants had consistently lower academic qualifications than their white and Asian counterparts," the Justice Department said on Wednesday.
The institution violated the law "by intentionally discriminating based on race in its admissions selections," it said.
The Supreme Court rejected affirmative action at colleges and universities in 2023 when it struck down race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina.
President Donald Trump, who casts diversity goals as anti-merit and as discriminatory against groups like white people and men, has signed executive orders to dismantle those policies in the government and private sector.
Civil rights advocates say diversity practices help address historic inequities for marginalized groups like women, the LGBT community and ethnic minorities.
Trump has targeted universities over a range of issues like diversity goals, climate initiatives, transgender policies and pro-Palestinian protests against U.S. ally Israel's assault on Gaza. Rights advocates have raised academic freedom, free speech and due process concerns.
Trump had frozen some federal grants for UCLA last year but a judge later ordered his administration to restore those funds.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Alistair Bell)
