A federal judge has ordered the University of Pennsylvania to comply with a Trump administration subpoena to investigate alleged harassment of Jewish employees.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued an administrative subpoena to the university in June 2025 to gather evidence and identify potential victims of alleged anti-Semitic acts in the wake of Hamas’ attack on Israel in October 2023. The subpoena asked for a list of Jewish-affiliated school groups and organizations.
The university asked the EEOC to quash or modify the subpoena, but the agency denied that request. After the EEOC moved to enforce the subpoena, the school – along with a coalition of organizations including American Association of University Professors – Filed a motion challenging the request in January. The school and the coalition expressed concern that the request could violate the rights, security, and privacy of Jewish members of the university by mandating the creation and compilation of a list, including with respect to their religious identity.
But Obama-appointed U.S. District Judge Gerald J. Papert rejected those concerns, saying that the university and the coalition “significantly raised the temperature of the controversy by implicitly and even explicitly comparing EEOC efforts to protect Jewish employees from anti-Semitism to the Holocaust and the Nazis’ compilation of ‘Jews’ lists.”
“Such allegations are unfortunate and unwarranted,” the judge wrote.
The Trump administration has launched several investigations into alleged anti-Semitism in higher education, including Harvard University. The House Education Committee also recently released a report that faulted the college for “leadership failures and radicalized faculty and student groups.” promote anti-semitism On campus.
The University of Pennsylvania intends to appeal the judge’s decision, a spokeswoman said.
The subpoena asks for contact information for staff at Jewish-related organizations and the Jewish studies program on campus.
But Papert said the university must respond to the subpoena without disclosing any employee’s affiliation with any specific organization.
A spokesperson for the University of Pennsylvania said in a statement that “We are committed to combating anti-Semitism and all forms of discrimination, and have taken a number of steps to prevent and address these hateful incidents.”
“While we recognize the important role of the EEOC in investigating discrimination, we also have an obligation to protect the rights of our employees,” the spokesperson said. “We believe that requiring Penn to list Jewish faculty and staff and provide personal contact information raises serious privacy and First Amendment concerns. The University does not maintain a list of employees based on religion.”
An EEOC spokesperson declined to comment.
“We give you our opinion,” the spokesperson said.
AAUP President Todd Wolfson expressed disappointment in the court’s order and said the EEOC had limited its demands too much.
“That said, the order still compels the disclosure of highly sensitive information about faculty, staff and students based on their religious identity,” he said in a statement. “This raises serious concerns about privacy, academic freedom, and freedom of association – core principles that are essential to higher education and a democratic society.”
The order has been put on hold until May 1, according to the AAUP’s legal counsel.
Wolfson said, “We will continue to oppose any government action that compels the identification of individuals based on religion and will protect the rights of faculty, staff, and students to work and learn without fear of surveillance or targeting.”
