The Department of Justice said on Thursday that it would investigate whether several California universities were complying with the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision banning the consideration of race in admissions.
The checks, which the Justice Department described as “compliance review investigations,” would target Stanford University and three schools in the University of California system — Berkeley, Los Angeles, and Irvine — according to an announcement released by Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“President Trump and I are dedicated to ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity across the country,” Ms. Bondi said in a statement.
It was not clear whether similar compliance reviews would be conducted at other colleges or universities across the nation.
The lawsuits that were the basis for the Supreme Court decision, in the case known as Students for Fair Admissions, were filed against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Plaintiffs in that case used statistical evidence, including standardized test scores, to support the contention that some racial groups, including Black and Hispanic students, had been given preferences in admissions. The plaintiffs argued the practice violated the 14th Amendment.
Unlike schools in most states, however, California public colleges and universities have been prohibited from using affirmative action in college admissions since Proposition 209 was adopted in 1996.
Enrollment of Black and Hispanic students and other minority groups dropped precipitously in the more selective public schools in California after the proposition was enacted. Since then it has rebounded at least somewhat. For example, Black enrollment at U.C.L.A. fell to 3.43 percent in 1998 from 7 percent before Proposition 209 was adopted. By 2019, it had increased to 5.98 percent. (California’s population is 6.5 percent Black.)
As a private school, Stanford did not fall under the Proposition 209 requirements.
Stanford said in a statement that it had taken steps to comply with the Supreme Court decision and that it was “committed to fulfilling our obligations under the law.” The statement added that the school had not received any details about the investigation from the Justice Department.
The University of California system was not immediately available to comment on the Justice Department announcement.
The review follows a lawsuit filed in February accusing the University of California system of violating protections against racial discrimination in admissions. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Students Against Racial Discrimination, which was organized by a persistent critic of affirmative action, asked for a court order requiring that the system select students “in a colorblind manner,” to “eliminate the corrupt and unlawful race and sex preferences that subordinate academic merit to so-called diversity considerations.”
Separately on Thursday, the Department of Health and Human Services said it was launching an investigation into accusations that a “major medical school” in California had used discriminatory admissions practices. It did not specify which school.