University of California student group alleges racial discrimination in admissions

A University of California student group sued the school system Monday, alleging racial discrimination in admissions.

Students Against Racial Discrimination filed a suit saying the university system gives “discriminatory preferences to non-Asian racial minorities.”

The suit says Asian American and white applicants are turned away while Black and Hispanic students “are often placed at significant academic disadvantage, and thus experience worse outcomes, because of the university’s use of racial preferences.”

The student group is accusing the University of California of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, the 14th Amendment and Proposition 206 in California, which forbids race as a factor in public education.

The suit points to actions taken by the system, such as encouraging its schools to adopt “holistic” admission policies that a previous chancellor said would help with low admission rates of minority students, comparing admission rates of Black applicants between 2010 and 2023 and the system allegedly shutting down resources outsiders could use to study this issue.

“Trends in racial admissions patterns consistently show that the adoption of the holistic process favored black and Hispanic admissions and disfavored Asian-Americans and, to a lesser extent, whites,” the suit reads.

One of the attorneys for the student group is Jonathan Mitchell, a prominent conservative attorney who regularly brings cases to the Supreme Court.

The Hill has reached out to the University of California for comment.

The lawsuit comes after the Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that affirmative action could not be used in higher education.

Schools have been searching for other ways to ensure diversity among their students, meaning that the fight over how race and ethnic information is used among colleges and universities is not over.

One likely next battleground will be around college scholarships that include a race or ethnicity portion, with one lawsuit already in the court system over the issue.

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