This post was updated Feb. 4 at 10:30 p.m.

A group opposing affirmative action filed a lawsuit Monday against the UC alleging that the University gave preference in admissions to Hispanic and Black applicants.

Students Against Racial Discrimination, an organization co-founded by UCLA School of Law Distinguished Professor Richard Sander, claimed in the lawsuit that the University discriminated against Asian American and white UC applicants. Though California made the consideration of race in college admissions illegal in 1996, the lawsuit claims that the University circumvented the law by using race-based practices.

The UC Board of Regents and chancellors of 10 University campuses – including Julio Frenk – are listed as defendants on the complaint.

“The University of California system discriminates on account of race when admitting students by giving discriminatory preferences to non-Asian racial minorities,” the complaint says. “This practice allows applicants with inferior academic credentials to obtain admission at the expense of rejected candidates with better academic credentials.”

UC Office of the President spokesperson Stett Holbrook said in an emailed statement that the University has not yet been served with the filing but believes the lawsuit to be “meritless.” He added in the statement that the UC collects information regarding students’ race and ethnicity “for statistical purposes only.”

“If served, we will vigorously defend our admissions practices,” Holbrook said in the statement. “Since the consideration of race in admissions was banned in California in 1996, the University of California has adjusted its admissions practices to comply with the law.”

The lawsuit accuses the UC of violating Proposition 209, which banned public colleges in California from considering race in the college admissions process. It also alleges that the University breached Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prevents any organization receiving federal funding from discriminating on the basis of race, and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits the government – including public institutions like the UC – from unevenly applying protections of the law across different groups.

Attorneys for SARD further allege in the lawsuit that UCLA, in particular, violated Proposition 209 beginning in 2006 through its choice to adopt a “holistic” admissions process.

Sander said in an emailed statement to the Daily Bruin that reports conducted by UCLA sociologist Robert Mare – which found that 2,000 offers of admission to UCLA were affected by the consideration of race – is “powerful” evidence that a UC school uses affirmative action practices. He added in the statement that the UC has never attempted to explain the findings of this report.

“Both reports showed unambiguously that UCLA had awarded many more undergraduate admissions to blacks and Hispanics, and many fewer admissions to Asian-Americans, than could be explained by considering all of the non-racial factors used in admissions,” the complaint said.

The lawsuit alleges that the Regents’ 2011 decision to have all UC campuses follow UCLA’s “holistic” or “comprehensive” admissions process led to the favoring of Black and Hispanic applicants over Asian American and white ones.

The UC recently announced that the enrollment of African American and Latino students rose by 4.6 and 3.1 percent in 2024, respectively. These statistics forgo a recent trend of universities across the United States admitting fewer students from underrepresented backgrounds after the Supreme Court ended affirmative action in college and professional school admissions in 2023.

[Related: Supreme Court overturns affirmative action in 6-3 decision]

“The students behind these numbers come from all corners of California and are proof that there are many paths to a UC education,” said Han Mi Yoon-Wu, the associate vice provost for Systemwide Undergraduate Admissions, in a press release announcing 2024 enrollment statistics. “The University of California is committed to making UC accessible to the best students.”

Sander added that the 2023 Supreme Court cases that ended affirmative action – Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College; and Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. University of North Carolina – served as an “impetus” for this lawsuit. SFFA, the plaintiff in these cases, is an anti-affirmative action advocacy group similar to SARD.

“There have been discussions among many observers for years about the possibility of a lawsuit,” Sander said in the statement. “A key impetus is the Supreme Court 2023 decision in the SFFA v. Harvard and SFFA v. UNC cases, which provided a clear pathway to bring suit against UC in federal court.”

SARD is seeking injunctive relief that prohibits the UC from using affirmative action in its admissions process, according to the lawsuit. The group asks for the court to appoint a court monitor to oversee admissions decisions and declare that the individual defendants have violated the Equal Protection Clause.

Sander previously sued the UC in 2018 for failing to fulfill his California Public Records Act request for 12 years of undergraduate admissions data.