Penn does not have to turn over the names of Jewish staffers to the federal government as appeals process plays out, judge rules

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A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked his earlier order requiring the University of Pennsylvania to give the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission the names of employees affiliated with Jewish organizations on campus, allowing Penn to pursue its appeal.

U.S. District Judge Gerald J. Pappert granted Penn’s request for a stay pending a review by an appeals court, meaning the university does not have to produce information sought by the EEOC unless and until the appeals court upholds the lower court’s enforcement order.

Pappert’s March 31 ruling had ordered the university to comply with an EEOC subpoena seeking information tied to an investigation into whether Jewish employees faced a hostile work environment based on religion. The court set a May 1 deadline for the Ivy League university.

Penn then filed an appeal, and the judge agreed to put a pause on his order as the appeals process plays out.

In a 12-page companion memorandum, Pappert continued to disagree with Penn’s position that the subpoena poses constitutional violations. He wrote that Penn had not shown a strong likelihood of winning on appeal and called the EEOC’s request “valid” as the agency investigates charges of discrimination.

“The EEOC’s subpoena seeks information relevant to the charge and the subpoena does not unduly burden Penn,” he wrote. “The subpoena also does not violate substantive due process or the First Amendment.”

However, Pappert found Penn narrowly showed the kind of irreparable harm that can justify a temporary stay, because any disclosure could not be fully undone if the appeals court later sides with the university. He also wrote that the EEOC has failed to show that a delay in receiving the records would cause the investigation significant harm.

The EEOC had argued that the records request was urgent as “memories fade, witnesses and victims may leave Penn and potential harassment may persist.” Pappert called those concerns “speculative,” writing that, “Nothing in the record supports these harms would come to fruition.”

How did we get here?

The dispute stems from an investigation launched by the EEOC after the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and subsequent campus unrest nationwide. Liz Magill, then the university’s president, and other school officials publicly acknowledged incidents of antisemitism and harassment affecting Jewish faculty and staff, prompting EEOC Commissioner Andrea Lucas to file a charge alleging systemic religious discrimination at Penn.

Magill resigned immediately after.

The EEOC later subpoenaed records seeking contact information for Penn employees who might have witnessed or experienced antisemitic harassment, including individuals affiliated with Jewish-related campus organizations.

Penn opposed the request, arguing that compelled disclosure could violate constitutional rights to privacy and association and chill participation in Jewish campus groups, but Pappert rejected those arguments in March.

Still, the judge concluded that pausing the case while the Third Circuit reviews it would better serve the public interest.

“The public also has an interest in the orderly resolution of this case through the ordinary appellate process,” he wrote, noting that the dispute has generated substantial public debate.