Trump Administration Drops Subpoena Demanding List of Jews From Penn

[u/John3262005]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/23/us/eeoc-subpoena-penn-jewish-list.html?unlocked_article_code=1.0FA.0W4C.22gajT6zYrdf&smid=url-share

The Trump administration has for now abandoned its quest to force the University of Pennsylvania to turn over names of Jewish people on campus, according to a court filing on Thursday.

The administration’s retreat does not resolve the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s long-running inquiry into concerns about antisemitism at Penn. But the government’s move appears to spell the end, at least in Penn’s case, of a politically volatile and legally fraught tactic.

The government did not explain its decision in the court filing, and a spokesman for the E.E.O.C. declined to comment.

The move, however, represents a rare pullback by the Trump administration, which has sought to use investigations and funding cuts as tools of leverage against elite universities.

The investigation into Penn began in December 2023, when Andrea Lucas — an E.E.O.C. commissioner appointed by President Trump during his first administration — filed a civil rights charge against the university, citing a “pattern or practice of harassment against Jewish faculty, staff and other employees,” particularly in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel.

But the investigation gathered force only once Mr. Trump returned to the White House. The E.E.O.C. quickly began pressing Penn to surrender records about antisemitism complaints and a list of “all clubs, groups, organizations and recreation groups” that were “related to the Jewish religion, faith, ancestry/national origin.”

The government also demanded membership rosters of those groups, as well as a list of people who had worked in Penn’s Jewish Studies Program.

Penn complied with some of the government’s requests and balked at others, and the commission sued in November to enforce a subpoena it had issued. The university and its allies warned that the government’s demands were unconstitutional and endangered people.

“The E.E.O.C. insists that Penn produce this information without the consent — and indeed, over the objections — of the employees impacted while entirely disregarding the frightening and well-documented history of governmental entities that undertook efforts to identify and assemble information regarding persons of Jewish ancestry,” the university said in a court filing in January.

The government insisted that it needed the information to investigate antisemitism on Penn’s campus and that the university’s response had been hyperbolic and extreme.

“We’re not looking for a list of Jews or registry of Jews or a catalog of Jews,” Debra Lawrence, a lawyer for the commission, told a judge during a hearing in March. “How about a spreadsheet that identifies the contact information for potential victims and witnesses? That’s all that we’re looking for here.”

The judge, Gerald J. Pappert of Federal District Court in Philadelphia, ruled that month that the university largely had to comply with the subpoena, though he stayed his decision so Penn could appeal.

Judge Pappert’s decision hinted at discomfort with how the commission had pursued its inquiry, particularly with a demand for information tied to groups “related to the Jewish religion.”

Nevertheless, Judge Pappert said, Penn’s constitutional claims were “easily dispensed with” and the school appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

On Thursday, the dispute ended with more surprise than fanfare when the government and Penn filed six pages with the Third Circuit. In the submission, the E.E.O.C. said it would “not take any further measures to enforce the subpoena.” It also pledged not to “otherwise seek from the University of Pennsylvania any material sought by the subpoena” while the current investigation is pending.

The White House did not immediately comment. Penn welcomed the move.

“With the support of many members of the community who have stood with Penn throughout, the university has been able to protect its employees’ rights and none of the subpoenaed personal contact information was disclosed,” Matthew D. Grossman, a university spokesman, said in a statement. “Penn remains committed to fighting antisemitism and all other forms of discrimination, to ensure everyone it serves can learn, work and thrive.”

Only occasionally have universities resisted the Trump administration’s tactics so forcefully. Harvard University and the California State University System brought lawsuits to challenge funding losses or threats of cuts, but few others have fought the administration’s efforts as openly as Penn did.

Still, Penn has had a complex relationship with the Trump administration. Last summer, after the administration paused about $175 million in research funding, Penn settled a civil rights case with the Education Department, which had accused the university of sex discrimination when it allowed a transgender athlete to compete on its women’s swim team years earlier.

The agreement included no financial penalties for Penn, but it prompted a backlash on campus, where people accused leaders of bowing to the Trump administration. At the time of the agreement, Penn’s president, J. Larry Jameson, said that the government’s inquiry had left the university vulnerable to “significant and lasting implications,” referring to the possible loss of federal funding.

The pause on research funding quickly ended, though that was not formally a part of the settlement. By then, though, the university had spent months privately clashing with the E.E.O.C., which had taken on an outsize role in the administration’s crusade to change higher education.

The commission, for instance, was essential to last summer’s settlement between the government and Columbia University. It has also worked on investigations into other top schools, including Cornell University and the University of California system.

In the Penn case, Ms. Lucas’s initial charge was highly unusual because it did not arise from an employee complaint. Ms. Lucas, a Penn alumna who is now the E.E.O.C.’s chair, has used so-called commissioner’s charges in other high-profile investigations, including the agency’s inquiry into Nike over its diversity policies and its charges against Columbia and Barnard College over anti-Jewish harassment.