Federal Review Finds Potential Violation of Title VI at UCLA Law

The Justice Department’s civil‑rights investigators examined the UCLA Law admissions packets and identified several red flags. Personal‑statement prompts and essay questions, they say, could coax applicants into revealing their racial background, allowing staff to weigh that information during the review.

Investigators also highlighted the school’s annual "Diversity Admission Open House" as a recruitment event where staff allegedly instructed prospective students on how to disclose race on different sections of the application.

Statistical analysis presented by the DOJ showed that a group of white and Asian candidates with LSAT scores comparable to rejected Asian applicants were denied admission, while lower‑scoring non‑Asian and Hispanic candidates were admitted. When combining data from the 2024 and 2025 cycles, the department found that half of the admitted Asian students had LSAT scores at or below the level achieved by 90 percent of admitted white students.

While the department stresses that these figures are part of an ongoing investigation, it warned that any proven breach of Title VI could trigger negotiations, corrective action plans, or, failing agreement, litigation against the law school.