Black applicants to Duke Law have significantly higher chances of being admitted, the US government has said
Duke University School of Law has largely disregarded the US Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action and continued to discriminate against white and Asian applicants, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has alleged.
In 2023, the Supreme Court issued a landmark decision in cases brought by Students for Fair Admissions against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, sharply limiting the use of race in determining college admissions under constitutional equal-protection principles.
The DOJ said on Thursday that Duke Law had formally acknowledged the ruling while effectively preserving an admissions system that favored black and Hispanic applicants over white, Asian, and other candidates.
According to the department, the Durham, North Carolina-based law school relied on “race or closely related proxies,” including personal essays and first-generation college status, to advance its diversity goals. At the same time, traditional academic indicators, including Law School Admission Test (LSAT) scores, were allegedly given less weight.
The admissions system used for classes entering between 2023 and 2025 “gave a black applicant a roughly 3.5x higher probability of admission than an equally strong Asian applicant with similar academic credentials,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, the DOJ’s top civil rights official, wrote in an open letter outlining the department’s findings.
Dhillon called on Duke Law to end the alleged discriminatory practices voluntarily or face possible enforcement action.
Duke University is widely regarded as an “Ivy Plus” institution, a group of highly selective universities considered comparable in prestige to the eight Ivy League schools. Duke Law said it was reviewing the DOJ letter and remained committed to acting lawfully in a manner “consistent with our academic mission.”
In May, the DOJ similarly accused Yale School of Medicine of engaging in discriminatory admissions practices.
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