The U.S. Department of Justice moved to court action over alleged discriminatory admissions practices at the UC San Diego School of Medicine. In separate DOJ coverage, the agency alleged the school used race-linked proxies such as “hardship,” “disadvantage,” and “distance traveled” in a process that favors Black and Hispanic applicants, and it said the school would face a lawsuit if it fails to return to compliance after negotiations. The DOJ’s allegations land in a higher-education climate already shaped by the U.S. Supreme Court’s limits on race-conscious admissions and California’s long-standing ban on considering race as an admissions criterion. UC San Diego’s admissions materials assert the medical school does not consider race or ethnicity as criteria for selection, while the DOJ said the practice violated Title VI. For universities, the case underscores that admissions compliance is now expanding beyond the direct use of race into questions about how applicants are evaluated and categorized under “holistic” frameworks—particularly for highly selective professional programs.