RALEIGH — Duke University, Duke Law Journal and Duke University School of Medicine are facing investigations from two federal agencies over alleged racial discrimination violations of Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act.
The U.S. Department of Education’s (USDOE) announcement and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ announcement were made July 28. A day later, $108 million in research funding to Duke was frozen by the National Institute of Health.
According to both press releases, Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sent a joint letter to Duke University leadership about their concerns over the school’s use of racial preferences in “hiring, admissions, and scholarship decisions.”
The USDOE investigation into the university and its law journal was prompted by a recent Washington Free Beacon article that reported the Duke Law Journal provided a special packet exclusively to “affinity groups,” instructing minority students to emphasize their race and gender in personal statements for the journal’s competitive editor selection process for which they could be awarded “extra points.”
The USDOE alleges Duke discriminates based on race, color and/or national origin by using these factors to select law journal members.
“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,” said McMahon.
“Blatantly discriminatory practices that are illegal under the Constitution, antidiscrimination law, and Supreme Court precedent have become all too common in our educational institutions. The Trump Administration will not allow them to continue.”
The Department of Health and Human Services said in its press release that its investigation is over “serious allegations of systemic racial discrimination permeating the operations of Duke University School of Medicine and other components of Duke Health.”
“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.”
Issues with Duke University’s health systems were revealed in February 2024 by Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro, who reported on recordings from an “internal DEI lecture” by Duke surgical resident Vignesh Raman. In Shapiro’s initial thread on X, he provided a clip from the lecture and wrote, “Raman adds that post-George Floyd, Duke made a concerted effort to stop hiring so many “walls of white men.” He says the team is now “abandoning … all sort[s] of metrics” and adopting a “completely holistic” application practice in order to recruit more women and non-white surgeons.”
Similarly in 2022, the watchdog group Do No Harm released records it had obtained showing “anti-racist” and DEI training had permeated medical schools and health care services in North Carolina. One given by Do No Harm included a racial justice task force at Duke University’s School of Nursing.
The USDOE’s investigation into Duke University is part of a broader scrutiny of educational institutions for potential violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color or national origin in programs receiving federal financial assistance. Violations of Title VI can result in the loss of federal funding.
A similar Title VI investigation was launched in April against Harvard University and its Law Review, also for alleged race-based discrimination in journal operations. The investigations stem from concerns that institutions may be engaging in practices that contravene federal guidelines or judicial rulings on race-based policies.
A USDOE “Dear Colleague” letter issued in mid-February directed educational agencies across all 50 states to eliminate DEI programs by Feb. 28 or risk losing federal funding.
In March, the USDOE announced that 15 schools, including Duke, were under investigation for noncompliance with the directive. The document does not provide specific details about the nature of Duke’s alleged noncompliance beyond the Law Journal’s practices but indicates the university was notified of the investigation.
Additionally, the investigations tie into a broader legal context involving the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the case of Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) v. Harvard. The ruling, which addressed race-based admissions, effectively ended such practices with “narrow restrictions” remaining.
In the fall of 2024, SFFA sent a letter to Duke’s vice president and general counsel, Kim Taylor, accusing the university of circumventing the Supreme Court’s decision. The letter highlighted Duke’s admissions data for the Class of 2028, the first class admitted post-ruling, noting a 6% decrease in Asian American students compared to the Class of 2027, when racial preferences were explicitly given to African American and Hispanic applicants.
Duke did not respond to requests for comment.
