Penn withdraws motion to reassign EEOC lawsuit, citing federal judge resignation

A day after Penn motioned for an ongoing lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to be reassigned to a different — and retired — federal judge, the University withdrew its request.

Filed on Dec. 2, the original motion requested that the case be reassigned to federal Judge Mitchell Goldberg, who previously dismissed an antisemitism lawsuit against Penn in June. The University attributed its Dec. 3 withdrawal to Goldberg's retirement in September, adding that the case the justice dismissed is currently on appeal. 

A Penn spokesperson did not respond to The Daily Pennsylvanian’s request for comment on Goldberg’s retirement. Shortly after the request was made, the University filed to withdraw its Dec. 2 motion for reassignment. 

An EEOC spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment as of publication. 

The EEOC lawsuit — filed in a Pennsylvania federal court on Nov. 18 — claimed that Penn “refused to comply” with a July subpoena seeking information related to an ongoing antisemitism investigation. The suit, which stemmed from a December 2023 investigation into the University, sought information including discrimination complaints filed by Jewish employees, membership lists of Jewish-related campus groups, and the names of Jewish Studies Program employees.

The initial investigation was launched days before former Penn President Liz Magill resigned over criticism of her response to campus antisemitism. 

A Penn spokesperson previously wrote to the DP that it had “cooperated extensively” with the agency's investigation but would not provide lists of Jewish employees or students without their consent, citing privacy concerns.

In June, Goldberg dismissed a lawsuit filed against Penn by two Jewish students — 2024 College graduate Eyal Yakoby and College junior Jordan Davis — who alleged the University responded insufficiently to campus antisemitism in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel. The two were later joined by 2025 Wharton and Engineering graduate Noah Rubin and the group Students Against Antisemitism, Inc. 

In the June dismissal, Goldberg wrote that there were “no allegations” that the University has taken any actions which could “be interpreted as antisemitic with the intention of causing harm to the Plaintiffs.”

Penn's Tuesday motion — requesting for Goldberg to be given jurisdiction over the EEOC suit — claimed that the only “relevant” Title VI complaint filed against the University in federal court is Yakoby's case, and that both suits involve allegations that Penn "violated civil rights laws based on allegations of antisemitic conduct on or around Penn’s campus from 2022 to the present.”

“Penn withdraws its motion in light of the recent retirement of the Honorable Mitchell S. Goldberg … and the fact that Yakoby is on appeal,” the notice of withdrawal filed Wednesday read. 

Days after the EEOC filed its lawsuit, hundreds of Penn community members signed a petition criticizing the lawsuit’s request for the names of Jewish students and faculty.

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