Duke Law School illegally considered race in admissions, DOJ says

Published August 6, 2026 9:23pm ET



The Department of Justice accused Duke University School of Law on Thursday of illegally using race as a metric in its admissions process, marking the latest Trump administration move to crack down on race-based admissions in higher education.

The DOJ said its Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 compliance review found that the North Carolina university’s law school intentionally discriminated based on race in its admissions of the classes of 2023, 2024, and 2025. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon wrote in the findings letter that the school’s admissions practices led to “highly qualified white, Asian, and other students” being “denied admission on the basis of their race.”

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