WashU medical school faces federal civil rights complaint over alleged DEI bias in admissions, residency, and hiring

America First Legal (AFL), a conservative legal advocacy group that focuses on defending civil rights and challenging federal policies, has filed a federal civil rights complaint with the US Department of Justice against Washington University School of Medicine (WashU) in St.

Louis. According to the AFL press release, the complaint seeks an immediate investigation and enforcement action, claiming that WashU operates one of the most egregious and unlawful “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” (DEI) regimes in the nation.AFL argues that, as a premier medical school and a top recipient of federal funding, WashU has a critical responsibility to uphold merit-based standards and fairness in education.

Instead, the complaint alleges, the university has infused race, sex, and identity-based preferences across all aspects of its medical programs, from admissions and residency placements to faculty hiring, curricula, and governance.

Allegations of race and identity-based preferences

According to the press release, WashU celebrates engineered racial outcomes and has abandoned traditional merit-based evaluation in favor of quotas, pipeline programs, and ideological indoctrination.

AFL claims that the school conditions opportunities on race and sex, promoting “ideological compliance” among students, residents, and faculty.“WashU has transformed its medical school into a DEI indoctrination training camp,” the press release states, “where students, residents, and faculty are compelled to internalize and enforce the university’s ideological agenda.” AFL contends that such practices are more egregious than those at Harvard or UNC because the alleged discrimination extends into every corner of medical education and clinical training.

Legal basis for the complaint

The AFL filing cites multiple legal frameworks, including the U.S. Constitution, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX, Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, Supreme Court precedent, and President Trump’s executive orders. The complaint asserts that WashU circumvents the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which prohibits race-based admissions, through a so-called “holistic review process.”This process reportedly evaluates applicants’ “experiences, attributes, and metrics” against institutional goals, allowing race and other identity characteristics to drive selection. AFL also claims WashU has redefined merit to address “systemic racism,” pre-filters applicant pools via pathway and pipeline programs, and embeds similar preferences in residency placements.

DEI programs and residency initiatives

The press release highlights specific examples AFL considers unlawful:

Concerns about merit and patient care

AFL contends that these policies prioritise identity over achievement, disadvantaging students who have dedicated years to medical training.

The group asserts that such approaches do not produce better doctors but rather “activists in white coats” who carry ideological bias into clinical practice, potentially impacting patient care.

Raising questions about DEI in schools

The complaint raises questions about the role of DEI programs at federally funded institutions and whether such initiatives comply with civil rights laws. AFL positions WashU as a national example of systemic overreach, suggesting that its practices could influence medical training, faculty recruitment, and patient care standards more broadly.The DOJ has not yet commented on the complaint, which could set the stage for wider scrutiny of DEI practices in medical schools and other higher education institutions.