BUZZ
The UC Berkeley law review selects its admissions committee based on candidates’ personal statements pledging commitment to DEI principles, leaked internal documents reveal.
According to a report by the Washington Free Beacon, applicants for the journal’s 12-person admissions team openly pledged to “uplift Native voices,” weigh “diverse life experience” against “technical editing abilities,” and “integrate anti-racist sentiment” into the selection process.
The outlet reported that the California Law Review weighs applicants’ race over traditional objective standards, noting the practice may violate affirmative action bans. The findings are based on a review of 14 admissions committee applications submitted between 2023 and 2026, as well as internal announcements.
Unlike most top-tier law reviews, the California Law Review does not consider grades, the Beacon reported.
At UC Berkeley’s law review, while personal statements account for 30 percent of a candidate’s score, the Beacon notes they frequently serve as the deciding factor. The law journal explicitly tells editors its holistic process “ensures that CLR upholds the values of diversity, equity and inclusion throughout our membership/scholarship,” the leaked documents revealed.
Summarizing his scoop on X, Free Beacon reporter Aaron Sibarium wrote that members of the law review “are openly saying that they use the journal’s ‘holistic review process’ to select editors of specific races and de-emphasize ‘technical editing abilities.'”
In 2025, Sibarium also broke the news that Duke Law Journal applicants get extra points for being minorities.
Also last year, the U.S. Department of Education opened an investigation into Harvard Law Review over allegations “of race-based discrimination permeating the operations of the journal.”
MORE: Conservative students appear blackballed from top law reviews
