President Donald Trump’s administration has accused the Yale School of Medicine of favouring Black and Hispanic applicants in its admissions process at the expense of White and Asian candidates. 

In a statement by the Office of Public Affairs Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, the Trump administration said its investigation found that Yale officials, between 2023 and 2025, deliberately prioritised Black and Hispanic applicants over White and Asian applicants despite lower scores. 

The government also alleged that, despite the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court judgment that overturned race-based admissions policies by relying on “proxies” to determine the ethnicity of its applicants, documents allegedly showed that Yale Medical School management studied loopholes to bypass the decision.

The Justice Department said, “Yale’s documents reveal that they studied how to use racial proxies to circumvent the Supreme Court’s prohibition on using race to select students. Yale’s admissions data demonstrate that Black and Hispanic students have a much higher chance of admission to Yale than White or Asian students with the same test scores.

“The investigation showed that, in general, Black and Hispanic applicants were admitted with consistently lower academic qualifications than their White and Asian counterparts. These facts support the Department’s finding that Yale violated the law by intentionally discriminating based on race in its admissions, in clear violation of federal law.”

The Trump administration further claimed that the medical school used significant federal funds to train the next generation of doctors in question.

“Medical schools use substantial federal financial assistance to train the next generation of doctors. The Department is continuing its focus on eradicating illegal race politics from admissions at medical schools, where quality and excellence are vitally important to public safety,” the Justice Department stated.

Commenting on the findings, Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said the Trump administration will continue to hold higher institutions in the country accountable. 

“Yale has continued its race-based admissions program despite the Supreme Court and the public’s clear mandate for reform. This Department will continue to shed light on these illegal practices and demand that institutions of higher education comply with federal law,” she remarked.

Meanwhile, Yale said on Thursday that the students it admitted “demonstrate exceptional academic achievement and personal commitment” and that it was “confident in the rigorous admissions process.”