April 15, 2026
Thom Carroll/For PhillyVoice
The University of Pennsylvania (above) is appealing a court order requiring it to turn over information on Jewish students and staffers to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The University of Pennsylvania has appealed a federal judge's order to share the names of its Jewish workers and students with the government. The university also has requested a stay to prevent the order from being enforced while the appeal process play out.
Since July, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has been pressuring Penn to provide information on people affiliated with Jewish organizations. The EEOC filed a lawsuit after the university failed to comply with a subpoena. A ruling issued March 31 ordered Penn to provide the names by May 1, but it did not require Penn to share the organizations that people are connected to.
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In a court filing submitted Monday, Penn said a stay is necessary, because the university believes its appeal is likely to be successful. Penn said the EEOC demanded Penn identify Jewish people on campus without their consent and despite their objections.
"This demand is so novel that the EEOC has cited no authority in which a court enforced a subpoena conscripting an employer to identify employees of a specific religion (and Penn is aware of none)," a memo supporting the request said. "Against that background, the Third Circuit will be called upon to scrutinize the constitutionality of the subpoena, and, respectfully, it is reasonably likely to find that the subpoena invades constitutionally protected privacy interests and unjustifiably chills First Amendment rights."
If the court does not grant a stay, Penn requested a temporary seven-day stay so it can apply for an emergency stay from the Third Circuit court.
The EEOC asked for the names of Jewish workers and students as part of its investigation into antisemitism on college campuses in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023. Penn was among several schools the EEOC began investigating.
The federal government has said the requested information, which includes email addresses, phone numbers and mailing addresses, to help it find people who may have experienced antisemitism.
U.S. District Judge Gerald J. Pappert, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, ruled in March that the EEOC had the right to request the information.
"Though ineptly worded, the request had an understandable purpose — to obtain in a narrowly tailored way, as opposed to seeking information on all university employees, information on individuals in Penn's Jewish community who could have experienced or witnessed antisemitism in the workplace," Pappert wrote.
The American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights groups have argued that creating a "registry" of certain religious groups on campus is dangerous. The ACLU said in January that collecting the information would create a "user-friendly tool for discrimination."
As the conflict continues playing out in courts, Penn said the stay would be of little consequence to federal officials but greatly benefit Jewish students and staff.
"Penn will face irreparable injury absent a stay, the EEOC will not be injured by a stay, and a stay serves the public interest," the memo supporting the stay request reads.
