The Justice Department has accused Duke University's law school of illegally considering race in its admissions process, marking the latest action by the administration against higher education institutions.
In a findings letter sent to the school, the department alleged that while administrators publicly claimed to be race-neutral in admissions, they utilized other factors as proxies for race. These included personal essays and whether an applicant was a first-generation college student.
Duke University, located in Durham, North Carolina, stated in an emailed response that it is reviewing the letter and remains committed to adhering to the law "in a manner that is consistent with our academic mission."
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division emphasized the department's stance in a news release, stating, "Duke Law School doesn’t get a free pass to discriminate against white and Asian students simply because it thinks it has good intentions." Dhillon added, "Using ‘diversity’ essay questions to identify preferred races for admission is still illegal discrimination based on race."
Affirmative action in college admissions has been illegal since a 2023 Supreme Court ruling. The same ruling said colleges could continue to assess how applicants’ backgrounds might speak to broader characteristics, but President Donald Trump has repeatedly accused colleges of using other proxies to maintain racial diversity, which conservatives view as illegal discrimination.
The department recently found that the medical schools at Yale University and the University of California, Los Angeles, illegally considered race in admissions. It announced in June that it was launching similar investigations into 15 other medical schools.
The Trump administration previously targeted undergraduate admissions at selective colleges, demanding they collect data to show they are complying with the Supreme Court ruling.
In its findings against Duke Law, the DOJ said Black or Hispanic applicants were much more likely to be admitted than white or Asian applicants with the same academic credentials. Further, it said, in 2024 and 2025, the median Law School Admissions Test scores of rejected white and Asian applicants exceeded the median scores of admitted Black applicants.
The department said it was seeking to reach a settlement with Duke Law.
