The U.S. Department of Education has launched an investigation into Duke University, focusing in part on alleged discriminatory practices during the 2024 editor selection process for the Duke Law Journal, according to an announcement made Monday.
Each year, following final exams in May, the Duke Law Journal conducts a competitive two-week application period in which students vie for positions as editors. Participants are required to submit a 12-page case analysis and a 500-word personal essay outlining their potential contributions to the journal. Selection decisions are based on a combination of academic performance, the submitted case notes, and the applicants’ personal statements.
Fewer than one in five students typically make the cut. The journal, while affiliated with Duke Law School, does not exist independently as a legal entity.
To assist applicants, the journal distributes a guide on how to craft the required case note. However, last year, the journal also provided an additional document specifically to the school’s minority student organizations. This supplementary packet encouraged applicants from underrepresented backgrounds to highlight their race and gender in their personal essays and disclosed that such disclosures would earn additional evaluation points.
According to materials obtained exclusively by the Washington Free Beacon, the packet included a scoring rubric detailing how applicants could receive up to 10 points for explaining how their identity as part of an underrepresented group would support the journal’s mission of promoting diverse perspectives. Applicants could also earn an extra 3 to 5 points for holding leadership roles in relevant affinity groups.
The memo was distributed solely to members of minority affinity organizations and included instructions not to share the information with others.
In addition to the law journal inquiry, the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services have sent a joint letter to Duke University expressing concerns about broader allegations of racial discrimination in areas including faculty hiring, student admissions, and scholarship programs. The letter singled out Duke’s medical school and Duke Health, its healthcare arm, for particular scrutiny.
Federal officials have asked the university to establish a “merit and civil rights panel” to work toward a resolution between the institution and the federal government.
“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 Education Secretary Linda McMahon.
“Blatantly discriminatory practices that are illegal under the Constitution, anti-discrimination law, and Supreme Court precedent have become all too common in our educational institutions,” McMahon added. “The Trump administration will not allow them to continue.”
