Duke University being investigated by US Department of Education over law journal practices

DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) -- The U.S. Department of Education announced Monday that it has opened an investigation into Duke University.

The investigation centers on the Duke Law Journal.

Department of Education officials alleged in a news release that the organization violated the Civil Rights Act in the factors they use to select law journal members.

Additionally, Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sent a joint letter to Duke alleging Duke Health is illegally using racial preferencing in its hiring, admissions, and scholarship decisions.

The government is requesting Duke to review all policies, make immediate changes, and form a merit and civil rights committee that works with the federal government to reach a resolution agreement.

"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," McMahon said in a statement.

"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," she added.

When selecting Law Journal members, Duke has applicants write a 12-page memo on an appellate court decision and a 500-word personal statement about what they would contribute to the Journal, according to the education department.

In the release, it said select applicants were reportedly given the chance to get "extra points" based on their personal statements that referenced their race or ethnicity for describing how their "membership in an underrepresented group" promoted "diverse voices." It said they received additional points if they "(held) a leadership position in an affinity group."

Secretary Kennedy said the departments are "making it clear that federal funding must support excellence - not race - in medical education, research, and training."

A spokesperson for Duke told ABC11 the university had nothing to share at this stage of the investigation.

ABC News contributed.