DOJ Official's Social Media Post Reveals Federal Probe Into Ohio State Medical School

A single social media post by the Justice Department's top civil rights official appears to have inadvertently disclosed a federal investigation into admissions practices at the Ohio State University College of Medicine, exposing a probe that the department had not publicly announced.

Harmeet Dhillon, head of the Civil Rights Division, shared a photo of herself holding a pen over what appears to be a formal enforcement letter. "Launching a series of civil rights investigations," Dhillon wrote on X, posting an image of a face-down page concealing the text of an underlying page. "Another day in paradise!" While Dhillon appeared to be attempting to hide the letter's contents, reversing the image shows the document is addressed to Ohio State University's College of Medicine and involves Title VI.

The letter, dated March 25 and signed by Dhillon, states that investigators from the agency will be conducting a "compliance investigation" into the college to determine whether they violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. The OSU College of Medicine receives federal money from the DOJ, the letter says.

"At this time, our investigation will focus on possible race discrimination in medical school admissions at Ohio State University College of Medicine," the letter states. The DOJ said it was seeking documents "guiding medical school admissions policies and procedures," including "documents related to the use or lack of use of race" in school admissions, as well as data regarding "applicant test scores (MCAT), GPA, extracurricular activities, essays, admission outcomes, and demographics." The letter asks for individual applications from 2019 through 2026. The college must send the requested information to the DOJ by April 24 or ask for an extension by April 8.

"Ohio State is fully compliant with all state and federal regulations and legal rulings regarding admissions," a spokesperson for the university told local media.

The post was made from Dhillon's official Assistant Attorney General account. As of now, the DOJ does not appear to have formally announced any such investigation, and might not normally do so. Dhillon has frequently used social media to publicize and comment on department activity, at times blurring the line between official legal and influencer work. It remains unclear whether Ohio State University College of Medicine had received the letter at the time the image was posted or whether DOJ had otherwise formally notified the university.

On Thursday, Dhillon posted a New York Times story that revealed her office was also investigating two other medical schools: Stanford and the University of California, San Diego. "We did this yesterday," she wrote. "Among other things!"

The investigation follows several other federal civil rights inquiries into Ohio State in the past year. In March 2025, the Department of Education alleged OSU had discriminated against Jewish students by failing to protect them during pro-Palestine protests. The same month, the Department of Education launched an investigation into Ohio State for allegedly engaging in "race-exclusionary practices in their graduate programs" by partnering with a PhD organization geared toward minority students. OSU ended its partnership with The PhD Project last summer and resolved the investigation in September.

Dhillon has said she uses social media to identify potential issues, including X, where she has over 1.3 million followers on her personal account. Dhillon has put a particular focus on diversity, equity and inclusion policies, posting "DEI delenda est" this week, which translates to "must be destroyed" in Latin.