Several legal experts and community members criticized a judge’s ruling that upheld a federal agency’s subpoena request for information about Jewish students and faculty at Penn.
On Tuesday, United States District Judge Gerald Pappert ordered Penn to comply with a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission subpoena, requiring the University to turn over personal information about its Jewish community members who may have faced discrimination. In interviews and statements to The Daily Pennsylvanian, politicians, legal experts, and civil rights organizations expressed concerns over the decision's constitutionality and its implications for privacy.
A University spokesperson told the DP that Penn intends to appeal the judge’s ruling.
“While we acknowledge the important role of the EEOC to investigate discrimination, we also have an obligation to protect the rights of our employees,” the statement read.
Wharton School professor Amanda Shanor — who represents a group of intervening organizations in the case — wrote to the DP that the decision could set a precedent for the government collecting information about any minority group.
“Whether the government has the power to demand lists like this should be important to every American, no matter their faith or political ideology,” Shanor wrote.
“The constitutional freedoms at stake — to be able to join religious and civic groups of your choice, to attend events, and teach and research freely without worry that your name and contact information will be put on a government list — are foundational to our democracy,” she added. “We are optimistic that higher courts will uphold these bedrock constitutional principles and that we will prevail on appeal.”
Pappert’s March 31 memo, filed alongside the order, argued that the EEOC has a “broad right of access” to information that might establish “reasonable cause” regarding workplace discrimination. He added that the EEOC often files charges “based on publicly available information” to avoid forcing employees to come forward individually, and that the EEOC’s charge against Penn fit that description.
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“These factual references—all of which Penn acknowledges—bolster Commissioner Lucas’s charge that Penn failed to provide Jewish faculty, staff and other employees a work environment free from harassment in the form of hateful and vile antisemitic slurs, messages and threats of violence,” the document read.
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Professor Lorena Grundy — Vice President of Penn’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors — echoed Shanor’s fears about the ruling's implications.
“This is a really important opportunity to draw a line in the sand — to protect not only the Jewish community at Penn, not only the Jewish community at other employers, but also the privacy and safety of other groups,” she said.
She added that she was “disappointed in the ruling” but that it “is not the end of the fight.”
Grundy said that the intervenors in the suit — which include the national and Penn chapters of the AAUP — will seek to delay the release of the information until the appeal process is completed.
American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania Legal Director Vic Walczak wrote to the DP that the government assembling a list of information about members of Jewish organizations would raise “profound concerns” about the possibility that the list is susceptible to future “misuse” or “weaponization.”
“The historical dangers of compiling lists based on religious affiliation are well documented, and we remain steadfast in our commitment to protecting our clients’ constitutional rights,” Walczak added.
In his ruling, Pappert argued that Penn — along with other campus groups involved in the litigation — “significantly raised the dispute’s temperature by impliedly and even expressly comparing the EEOC’s efforts to protect Jewish employees from antisemitism to the Holocaust and the Nazis’ compilation of ‘lists of Jews.’”
“Such allegations are unfortunate and inappropriate,” Pappert wrote.
U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans (D-Pa.) — who represents University City and Penn in the House of Representatives —wrote in a statement to the DP described the judge’s decision as “outrageous.”
“The Trump-Vance administration’s demand for a list of Jewish students and faculty is invasive and outrageous, and I hope the university quickly appeals this ruling,” he added.
A spokesperson from the Anti-Defamation League of Philadelphia told the DP that the organization is “currently reviewing” the judge’s decision and its “views remain consistent” with a statement it released in November 2025.
“We are, however, concerned about the privacy and constitutional implications of any effort (even those that are well-intentioned) to force the production of a list of Jewish faculty, staff, and students by religious affiliation, along with confidential responses from participants in Penn’s internal Antisemitism Task Force,” the previous statement read.
In November 2025, the EEOC filed a lawsuit alleging that Penn failed to comply with the agency’s requirements. At the time, a University spokesperson told the DP that Penn “cooperated extensively” with the EEOC but would not provide “personal and confidential” information of students and employees without their consent.
In January, Penn submitted a brief in response to the agency’s claims of noncompliance, stating that the University has agreed to the agency’s demands, but remains unwilling to submit personal information without the consent of the affected parties.
The brief described the subpoena as “disconcerting but also entirely unnecessary,” arguing that disclosing private details would “erode trust between Penn and its employees and the broader Jewish community at Penn.”
In a filing later that month, the EEOC claimed Penn “impeded” the agency’s investigation into allegations of campus antisemitism and that its subpoena was “no different” from other requests for information in previous investigations.
Earlier this month — following the months-long back-and-forth between Penn and the EEOC — Pappert heard oral arguments in the case.
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Senior reporter Arti Jain covers state and local politics and can be reached at jain@thedp.com. At Penn, she studies economics and political science. Follow her on X @arti_jain_.
Staff reporter Luke Petersen covers national politics and can be reached at petersen@thedp.com. At Penn, he studies philosophy, politics, and economics. Follow him on X @LukePetersen06.
