The six-page document analyzes the taxpayer-funded institution's new focus on hiring job candidates based on "knowledge, past contributions, and/or future plans for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion." If candidates didn't meet UC-Berkeley's standards in this area, they weren't hired.

The 2018-2019 summary report for the "Initiative to Advance Faculty Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Life Sciences" was written by two science professors, Mary Wildermuth and Rebecca Heald, who is also regional associate dean. They are co-chairs for the Life Sciences Initiative Committee.

Daniel Ortner, an attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation, told two academic blogs that he is "looking to challenge the University of California Policy."

He wants anyone who was required to submit a mandatory diversity statement and not hired to contact him.

The policy has "several serious constitutional problems," Ortner told The College Fix in an email.

He started looking into it when "[s]ome concerned UC professors" contacted him: "[T]he more I've looked into it the worse UC's actions appear."

When applicants are required to submit a diversity statement on their own experience, university reviewers would likely be able to tell the applicants' race and gender, "allowing those factors to be taken into account," Ortner said.

That is "contrary to California Proposition 209," the 23-year-old ballot initiative that amended the state constitution, "and potentially the Equal Protection Clause" of the U.S. Constitution.