Penn granted stay in Trump administration’s quest for Jewish employees’ data

Dive Brief:

A federal judge on Monday paused his earlier order directing the University of Pennsylvania to turn over extensive data on Jewish employees to the Trump administration. 
The stay, issued by U.S. District Judge Gerald Pappert, grants Penn a reprieve while the university appeals Pappert’s March decision giving the university until May 1 to comply with the data request. 
In issuing the stay, Pappert wrote that Penn “does not have a strong chance of prevailing on appeal,” but the institution showed that it would suffer harm if forced to provide the data while appealing the order. Further, pausing the order “will not substantially injure the EEOC” and will allow an appeals court to deliberate on “in an orderly manner a matter of great public interest,” the judge wrote.

Dive Insight:

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last July subpoenaed Penn for voluminous information including names and contacts of employees affiliated with Jewish groups at the Ivy League institution. 

Additionally, EEOC demanded Penn turn over names and contact information of employees who work in Penn’s Jewish Studies Program as well as those who participated in an anonymous survey and in anonymous listening sessions on campus antisemitism. 

In addition to contact information, EEOC has asked for individual de-anonymized responses to the survey and notes from the listening sessions. 

The agency’s requests come as part of its investigation into Penn over alleged discrimination against Jewish employees at the university. 

Penn said in November that it “responded in good faith to all the subpoena requests” and provided hundreds of pages of documents. But it objected to providing personal and confidential information of Jewish employees without their consent. The university did offer to help the agency reach employees who were willing to speak with EEOC. 

The agency asked a federal court last year to force Penn to comply with the subpoena. In late March, Pappert, an Obama appointee, sided with EEOC and ordered Penn to comply. However, he denied the agency’s request for information about employees tied to a specific Jewish-related organization and about three of the university’s Jewish centers. 

Pappert reiterated much of his reasoning this week in issuing the stay, arguing that the subpoena was within the scope of EEOC’s investigative authority when looking into religious discrimination claims.

Penn appealed the decision in mid-April, and the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is currently hearing its case. 

Several groups have objected to EEOC’s demands and moved to support Penn in court. They include the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Association of University Professors, as well as both organizations’ local chapters. 

“The historical dangers of compiling lists based on religious affiliation are well documented, and we remain steadfast in our commitment to protecting our clients’ constitutional rights,” Vic Walczak, legal director of ACLUPennsylvania, told The Daily Pennsylvanian student newspaper following Pappert’s March ruling.

AAUP-Penn also invoked the past in opposing EEOC’s subpoena. In a November statement, the faculty group said, “Historically, allowing regimes to collect lists of Jewish people has not boded well for their safety.”