Penn motions for judge reassignment in EEOC lawsuit, citing judicial efficiency

Penn motioned to have a United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit against the University reassigned to a different federal judge on Tuesday.

The Dec. 2 motion requested that the case be reassigned to federal Judge Mitchell Goldberg, who previously dismissed an antisemitism lawsuit against Penn in June. The University argued that reassignment would “promote interests of judicial economy and efficiency,” stating that the EEOC's suit is related to the case Goldberg had already dismissed.

A request for comment was left with a University spokesperson.

The EEOC lawsuit claimed that Penn “refused to comply” with a subpoena requesting discrimination complaints filed by Jewish employees, membership lists of Jewish-related campus groups, and Jewish Studies Program employee names. The suit stemmed from a December 2023 EEOC investigation into Penn, which was launched days before former Penn President Liz Magill resigned over criticism of her response to campus antisemitism. 

Penn wrote in response to the agency's suit that it had “cooperated extensively” with the EEOC'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 Jewish students, who alleged the University responded insufficiently to campus antisemitism in the wake of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel.

The suit was filed by 2024 College graduate Eyal Yakoby and College junior Jordan Davis, who 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 Dec. 2 motion 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.” 

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

---