This post was updated March 30 at 9:51 p.m.

The Department of Justice announced an investigation into UCLA on Thursday for the alleged use of affirmative action when admitting students.

A 2023 Supreme Court ruling made it illegal to consider race in the college admissions process nationwide, but affirmative action was already illegal across the UC at the time due to California voters passing Proposition 209 – which banned the practice in public employment, education and contracting – in 1996. Federal prosecutors will also investigate UC Berkeley, UC Irvine and Stanford University, according to a DOJ press release.

The department said in the press release that it will review if the universities have engaged in “DEI discrimination” by prioritizing race over merit. President Donald Trump has attacked diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at universities since entering office, including by signing an executive order calling on the federal government to cancel DEI grants.

“President Trump and I are dedicated to ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity across the country,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in the press release. “Every student in America deserves to be judged solely based on their hard work, intellect, and character, not the color of their skin.”

UC Office of the President spokesperson Rachel Zaentz said in an emailed statement that the University does not use affirmative action in its admissions process. She added that it collects students’ race and ethnicity for statistical purposes only – and that this information is not shared with application reviewers.

Zaentz also said in the statement that the UC hopes to expand access to “all qualified students.”

“Since Proposition 209 banned California’s public institutions from considering race in admissions, UC has implemented admissions practices to comply with it,” she said in the statement.

The Department of Education issued guidance in February instructing universities to cancel diversity programs or risk losing federal grants and contracts, prompting certain universities to eliminate or rebrand their DEI offices. It also launched investigations into 52 schools in March over “race-exclusionary” graduate programs.

The website for UCLA’s Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion was live as of 8 a.m. Friday. However, the UC announced it would no longer consider diversity statements in its hiring process March 19.

[Related: UC announces elimination of diversity statements in hiring processes]

A group opposing affirmative action sued the UC in February, alleging that the University gave admissions preference to Black and Hispanic applicants while discriminating against Asian and white ones. 

The suit came after the UC announced in January that enrollment of African American and Latino students rose by 4.6% and 3.1%, respectively, in 2024. It claimed that the University-wide decision to adopt a “holistic” admissions process in 2011 violates Proposition 209. 

Despite not using affirmative action, UCLA previously announced it hopes to become a Hispanic-serving institution, which would require 25% of its undergraduate students to identify as Hispanic or Latinx, according to the UCLA HSI website. The university hopes to achieve the status by 2025.

[Related: Lawsuit filed against the UC alleging illegal use of affirmative action]

Stanley Zhong – an Asian American student who was denied admission from UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara and UC Davis – and his father also filed a lawsuit against the University in February on the basis of it allegedly using illegal affirmative action practices. 

The Department of Health and Human Services also announced Thursday that it launched an investigation into a “major medical school” in California over discrimination in its admissions process but did not disclose which school. The department did not respond in time to a request for comment on which school was being investigated.

UCLA announced its decisions for first-year admits to the class of 2029 on March 21. The university has yet to disclose admission demographic statistics.