In a win for faculty and student groups on campus, a federal appeals court threw out the initial ruling in Penn’s longstanding legal battle with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit granted a motion to vacate the district court’s decision in favor of the EEOC on Oct. 6. The decision means there is no longer precedent for the government to seek people’s personal contact information based on their religious affiliation.
Legal studies professor Amanda Shanor wrote in a statement that the ruling was “a huge and incredibly meaningful win for Penn’s Jewish community, the Penn community more broadly, and for First Amendment rights.”
The ruling comes after Penn’s July resolution with the EEOC, in which the University expressly agreed not to seek vacatur of the ruling in exchange for the agency not enforcing its subpoena. Days after the agreement was filed, however, groups intervening in the suit — who did not settle — filed their motion to have the ruling vacated.
At the time, community members highlighted concerns about the possibility of the ruling being used to again pressure Penn or other institutions. Shanor represented the Penn-affiliated groups that intervened as defendants in the lawsuit and continued litigation after the EEOC settled with the University.
“The subpoena deeply scared many here, and even after the university and the EEOC settled (pausing enforcement of the subpoena), intervening faculty, staff, and students were steadfast in their desire to make sure that the district court’s opinion could not be later weaponized against them or used to authorize a demand for Jews or any other group at other universities,” Shanor wrote.
Third-year University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School student and former co-president of the Jewish Law Students Association Jacob Naimark wrote that he was “incredibly proud that Penn Law’s Jewish community stood firm in our belief that participation in religious life should never be conditional on the government knowing who was there, how to contact us, or where we live.”
Naimark, who was the JLSA signatory throughout the lawsuit, added that the ruling “speaks to the power of standing up for what is right—and winning.”
Lorena Grundy, vice president of Penn’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, similarly wrote to The Daily Pennsylvanian that she was “thrilled to have beaten this unconstitutional attempt by the Trump administration to violate the privacy and safety of our Jewish community.”
Grundy highlighted that the intervenors elected to continue fighting to vacate the ruling “so that the EEOC couldn’t try to use it to persuade other universities to give up the kind of information it sought from Penn.”
“The members of our community deserve to grow as students and future lawyers without fearing that their names will end up a list of Jews held by the federal government,” Ben McQuilkin-Feldman, a second-year law student and current JLSA co-president, wrote to the DP. “The Third Circuit’s decision will help our members rest easier on that front.”
Senior reporter Lavanya Mani covers legal affairs and can be reached at mani@thedp.com. At Penn, she studies comparative literature. Follow her on X @LavanyaMani_.
