Trump Administration Accuses Berkeley Law School of Racial Discrimination

The University of California, Berkeley, discriminated against white and Asian applicants to its law school, the Justice Department and the Education Department said Wednesday.

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The Justice Department based its findings, in part, on applicant data provided by the law school, which it said showed that the school had a bias against Asian and white applicants and in favor of Black applicants.

Harmeet K. Dhillon, the Justice Department’s top civil rights official, wrote in a letter to a lawyer for Berkeley that the patterns “could not reasonably have occurred by chance and provide substantial evidence of intentional discrimination.”

Berkeley fired back soon after the Justice Department released Ms. Dhillon’s letter.

“Berkeley is committed to ensuring that every student is admitted based on their merit, and not on their race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin,” the university said in a statement, adding that it would “spare no effort to provide ample evidence showing that the university complies with all relevant laws, policies and rules governing admissions.”

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In the case of Berkeley, according to the Justice Department, the law school had used “race, essay prompts and other tactics to further its admissions diversity goals.” The result, the government contended, was that Black applicants were far more likely to be admitted to Berkeley’s law school than white or Asian applicants with comparable qualifications.

In a statement, Ms. Dhillon said Berkeley had shown “a complete disregard for the rule of law.”

Although the government has demonstrated some interest in undergraduate admissions procedures — it has a pending investigation, for instance, at Yale — the Justice Department’s formal accusations have so far focused on law or medical schools.

The University of California system has been a persistent target: The Justice Department has already accused the medical schools at the Davis, Los Angeles and San Diego campuses of wrongdoing in admissions.

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