Franklin County’s DEI Office has funneled over $600,000 to the program since 2023
Ohio’s most populous county funds a race-based medical education program that is only open to black students, an initiative lawyers say is patently unlawful and could put the county in legal jeopardy.
Franklin County, home of Columbus, Ohio, has funneled more than $600,000 to the Made for Medicine program since 2023, the year the Supreme Court banned affirmative action in college admissions. Designed to “increase Black representation in the medical field,” the program provides special courses, labs, and research opportunities to middle and high school students who “identify as African American or Black,” according to a frequently asked questions page.
The funds were dispensed through Franklin County’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, which states that “success should be shaped by a person’s character, determination, and ideas—not limited by their background, race, or socioeconomic status.”
Attorneys who reviewed the program said it likely violates multiple civil rights laws and all but guaranteed legal action amid the government’s crackdown on racial preferences.
Dan Morenoff, executive director of the American Civil Rights Project, told the Washington Free Beacon that it is “perishingly unlikely” that the race-based medical program is constitutional. “If there is a state or local government that is funding a program that is racially exclusive, that is a straightforward 14th Amendment problem,” Morenoff said. He added that the program could also violate Title VI, the law banning race discrimination by the recipients of federal funds, since Franklin County receives money from the government.
William Trachman, the general counsel for Mountain States Legal Foundation, said the program may also violate another federal law banning race discrimination in contracting. “It looks a lot like the discriminatory and unlawful programs that have already gotten the attention of the Justice Department’s civil rights division,” Trachman said.
The program is an affiliate of the Columbus Medical Association, a nonprofit “committed to Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access for all.” Franklin County and the Columbus Medical Association did not respond to requests for comment.
The program illustrates the tenacity of racial preferences even one year into the Trump administration, which has launched a scorched-earth campaign against unlawful DEI programs. That campaign has targeted state and local governments as well as private institutions: In March 2025, for example, the Justice Department threatened to sue the state of Illinois over a minority-only scholarship program.
Some institutions have responded to the crackdown by substituting terms like “disadvantaged” for explicit racial criteria. The Made for Medicine program, however, says outright that it excludes non-minorities.
“Do I have to identify as African American or Black in order to participate?” a question on the FAQ page reads. “Yes. Due to the dearth of African Americans and/or Blacks in the medical field, we are specifically recruiting African American or Black youth in order to tackle this problem and to create a sustainable pipeline for the future.”
The race-based program was touted by an associate admissions dean at the Ohio State University College of Medicine, Demicha Rankin, during a March webinar focused on increasing minority enrollment in medical schools and hosted by Georgetown Law School and the Urban Institute, a left-leaning think tank.
Rankin cited Made for Medicine as an example of the sort of “pathway programs” that could support a “commitment to equity.” She did not mention the program’s race-based criteria, according to a YouTube video of the webinar, which was ostensibly focused on how medical schools could pursue diversity without violating the Supreme Court’s affirmative action ban.
Rankin also proposed using geospatial data to locate applicants from “underserved areas,” and deploying artificial intelligence to find “mission aligned” candidates. And she encouraged schools to “diversify” their admissions committee to ensure that more minority students are accepted.
“Really lean into who is on the committee,” she said. “Because if there’s representation there, and if there’s broad lived experiences, this can influence the decisions that a committee is making in terms of who is accepted.”
The Ohio State College of Medicine declined to comment.
