The Justice Department said Thursday that Duke University still uses racial preferences in admissions to its law school, violating federal Civil Rights law.
The department said Black and Hispanic students get a leg up on White and Asian applicants. In 2024 and 2025, the median LSAT test scores for White and Asian applicants who were rejected were higher than those of Black students who were admitted.
The finding comes three years after the Supreme Court ruled explicit racial preferences to be illegal in college admissions.
While Duke said its admissions officers don’t see racial data for applicants, DOJ said the school instructed the officers to try to spot other information in the applications that could be used to boost Black and Hispanic students.
“Duke Law School doesn’t get a free pass to discriminate against White and Asian students simply because it thinks it has good intentions,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon. “Using ’diversity’ essay questions to identify preferred races for admission is still illegal discrimination based on race.”
She said DOJ is seeking a voluntary agreement with the university to end the discrimination.
Duke University, in a statement, said it is reviewing DOJ’s findings.
“Duke is committed to complying with the law and will continue to do so in a manner that is consistent with our academic mission,” the statement said.
Under the 2023 ruling in Students for Fair Admissions, the Supreme Court found that public schools that use racial preferences violate the Constitution, and private institutions that take federal money and use racial preferences violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
The justices said schools are still able to consider how race affected an individual applicant’s life, but they cannot automatically treat an application from a preferred minority candidate better than another application.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts specifically said essay questions can’t be used as end-runs around the ruling.
Duke’s case appears to test that.
DOJ said the school urged admissions officers to try to find ways to “contextualize” weaker candidates based on their backgrounds.
“Duke Law’s internal documents, including policies, and communications confirm the department’s findings that Duke Law intended to discriminate against all racial groups except Black and Hispanic applicants, to accept more Black and Hispanic applicants,” Ms. Dhillon wrote in a letter to the school. “As a result of these practices, highly qualified White, Asian, and other students were denied admission on the basis of their race.”
Contact the author
Please read our comment policy before commenting.