Overview
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has stepped back from a court battle that sought to compel the University of Pennsylvania to provide names and contact information for Jewish faculty, students and employees connected to Jewish campus groups. The agency informed a federal appeals court that it will withdraw a subpoena issued last year; in response, the university agreed to end its appeal of a district judge’s order that had required compliance.
Scope and status of the investigation
Withdrawing the subpoena does not signal an end to the agency’s wider inquiry. The EEOC said the broader investigation into the university remains ongoing and that further legal action against Penn remains a possibility. The probe forms part of a larger effort by the administration of President Donald Trump to scrutinize colleges and universities for what it describes as promotion of "woke" ideologies, a description that in this context includes criticism of Israel and support for transgender rights.
Claims and responses
The commission had sued last year to enforce the subpoena after saying the university had declined to provide discrimination complaints lodged by Jewish employees, a roster of individuals belonging to Jewish-related campus organizations and the names of staff in Penn’s Jewish Studies program. The EEOC said that without those details it could not reach employees it believes were subject to antisemitic conduct and therefore could not assess whether the university’s response had been adequate.
Penn maintained that none of the personal contact information that the subpoena requested had been disclosed. The university said it furnished nearly 900 pages of documents to the EEOC and offered to notify employees about the agency’s inquiry, but it refused to hand over the personal information sought on confidentiality grounds.
An EEOC spokesperson declined to comment on the decision to withdraw the subpoena.
Judicial rulings and procedural posture
U.S. District Judge Gerald Pappert in Philadelphia had ordered the university in March to comply with the EEOC’s subpoena, finding the request directly related to the agency’s duty to investigate discrimination complaints filed by workers. That order was later put on hold while Penn pursued an appeal. Following the agency’s move to drop the subpoena, Penn will end its appeal of the judge’s ruling.
What remains uncertain
Even with the subpoena withdrawn, the trajectory of the EEOC’s investigation is not resolved. The agency retained the option to pursue other legal avenues, and the broader inquiry into alleged antisemitic incidents and the university’s handling of complaints continues.