The Department of Justice on Thursday said it would investigate four California universities for potential "illegal DEI" in admissions, suggesting the schools flouted state law and U.S. Supreme Court precedent banning the use of race as a factor when evaluating college applicants.

California banned affirmative action decades ago. The Trump administration says it plans to investigate whether schools there are still considering race.

The Trump administration has opened investigations into the admissions policies at Stanford University and three campuses within the University of California system, including UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC Irvine,