The Trump administration has launched an investigation into Duke University over allegations that the school’s law journal discriminated based on race, color, or national origin when selecting editors.
The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) opened the probe after the Washington Free Beacon reported that the Duke Law Journal distributed a packet exclusively to members of law school affinity groups.
The packet explained how applicants would be scored on their 500-word personal statements and encouraged them to “discuss traditional diversity (race, gender, ethnicity etc…)”
Applicants could earn up to 10 points for describing how their “membership in an underrepresented group” would “lend itself to … promoting diverse voices.”
Another five points were available for leadership roles in affinity groups or programs supporting diverse backgrounds.
Several sample essays in the packet referenced race explicitly, the New York Post reported.
One sample started: “[A]s an Asian-American woman and a daughter of immigrants, I am afforded with different perspectives, experiences, and privileges.”
The law journal instructed affinity groups not to share the packet outside their membership.
The Trump administration launched a similar investigation into Harvard University’s law journal earlier this year amid claims it used “race-based criteria” instead of “merit-based standards” for journal membership and article selection.
“If Duke illegally gives preferential treatment to law journal or medical school applicants based on those students’ immutable characteristics, that is an affront not only to civil rights law, but to the meritocratic character of academic excellence,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said.
“Blatantly discriminatory practices that are illegal under the Constitution, antidiscrimination law, and Supreme Court precedent have become all too common in our educational institutions,” she added.
McMahon and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sent a joint letter to Duke University expressing concerns about “race preferences in Duke’s hiring, admissions, and scholarship decisions.”
The letter demands that Duke “review all policies and practices at Duke Health for the illegal use of race preferences,” take immediate corrective action, and provide “clear and verifiable assurances” that new policies will be implemented properly.
It also calls on Duke to create a “Merit and Civil Rights Committee” to work with the federal government toward resolving alleged civil rights violations.
“We are making it clear that federal funding must support excellence — not race — in medical education, research, and training,” Kennedy said.
“Today, Secretary McMahon and I are calling on Duke to address serious allegations of racial discrimination by forming a Merit and Civil Rights Committee to work with the Federal government to uphold civil rights and merit-based standards at Duke Health,” he added.
It remains unclear what triggered the investigation into Duke Health specifically.
Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro claimed last year that Duke’s School of Medicine lowered admission standards as part of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, a claim the university denied.
