The U.S. Department of Justice is joining a lawsuit claiming race is used as a factor in admissions at the University of California Los Angeles’ (UCLA) medical school, the agency said Wednesday.

The legal action was brought by several groups, including Students for Fair Admissions and a medical advocacy group called Do No Harm, alleging the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA continues using race in its admission practices and policies, according to a news release.

Based on a previous Supreme Court ruling from June 2023, educational institutions are prohibited from using race as a factor in acceptance.

“Today’s intervention is the Department of Justice’s latest effort to hold our universities accountable for unlawful policy—especially in the state of California,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in the release.

In the Supreme Court ruling, Students for Fair Admissions won a historic decision against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. The lawsuit accused the two institutions of the same issues now being alleged against UCLA.

The university previously said it collects race and ethnicity data on its applicants “for statistical purposes only and they are not used for admission.” A spokesman for the David Geffen School of Medicine said the program is “committed to fair processes” in accordance with state and federal anti-discrimination laws.

The action against UCLA, filed in May 2025 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, claims the university’s medical school collects data on applicants’ race and uses racial preferences to balance its classes to “look like” America.

“Even after the Supreme Court banned race-balancing, the Geffen School kept discriminating by using illegal DEI preferences in admissions,” Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division Harmeet K. Dhillon said. “This Civil Rights Division will not tolerate such conduct and welcomes the Court’s role in ensuring justice.”

The DOJ additionally notes in its news release, based on data the agency obtained from David Geffen School of Medicine, that black and Hispanic enrollees’ MCAT scores and GPAs are on average lower than white and Asian applicants, alleging that the disparities indicate racial discrimination in admissions.

“As a state where so many of its leaders pride themselves on being on the ‘right side of history,’ California can and must do better,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli said in the DOJ news release.

Under the guise of “holistic admissions,” the Do No Harm group said UCLA has continually violated the U.S. Constitution by discriminating against applicants based on race.

“We look forward to the Justice Department’s additional efforts here to get to the bottom of what appears to be an effort by UCLA to continue a race-based medical school admissions process,” Do No Harm Executive Director Kristina Rasmussen said in a separate news release.

The Epoch Times reached out to UCLA for comment, but the institution did not immediately respond.

Reuters contributed to this report.