University of Pennsylvania must give Trump admin list of Jewish campus employees amid discrimination case
A federal judge in Philadelphia on Tuesday allowed the Trump administration to collect information about the University of Pennsylvania's Jewish employees amid the campus discrimination probe.
The decision comes despite the objection of student and faculty groups who compared it to the tactics of Nazi Germany.
Judge Gerald Pappert’s ruling backed the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which has been investigating antisemitism and claims Penn tolerated a hostile educational environment and failed to provide Jewish faculty, staff and other employees a work environment free from harassment.
As part of the investigation, the EEOC sought to obtain the contact information of Penn employees in Jewish-related organizations. The judge ordered Penn to comply.
“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 said in the decision.
Jewish student and faculty groups balked, comparing the EEOC’s efforts to the Holocaust and the Nazis’ compilation of lists of Jews. The judge called the comparison “unfortunate and inappropriate” and said in his ruling that Jewish employees “are reasonably likely to have information relevant to whether Penn subjected Jewish employees to religious discrimination.”
A university spokesman said Penn would appeal.
“We remain committed to confronting antisemitism and all forms of discrimination, and have taken multiple steps to prevent and address these despicable events. While we acknowledge the important role of the EEOC to investigate discrimination, we also have an obligation to protect the rights of our employees. We continue to believe that requiring Penn to create lists of Jewish faculty and staff, and to provide personal contact information, raises serious privacy and First Amendment concerns. The University does not maintain employee lists by religion. We intend to appeal,” the spokesman’s statement said.
