A federal judge ordered the University of Pennsylvania on Tuesday to comply with a subpoena from the Trump administration requesting detailed information about Jewish university affiliates as part of the government’s crackdown on campus antisemitism.   

The decision follows a monthslong legal battle between Penn and the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s over the EEOC’s authority to enforce the subpoena issued last July, which stemmed from an ongoing investigation into Penn’s handling of antisemitism. 

The EEOC sued Penn in November, saying it had failed to comply with the subpoena, which demands that the university turn over lists of Jewish employees and members of Jewish organizations — including their identifying details and phone numbers — saying the information is necessary for the agency to contact potential victims of antisemitism. 

The battle escalated in January when the Ivy League university issued a court filing calling the agency’s methods of investigating whether the school allowed an antisemitic work environment “extraordinary and unconstitutional.” 

Judge Gerald Pappert of Philadelphia’s Federal District Court ruled in Tuesday’s brief that “for their legal arguments, respondents contend the charge of discrimination is invalid and the subpoena violates the United States Constitution in various ways. But the charge is valid and the constitutional claims are easily dispensed with.”

Penn has until May 1 to respond to the subpoena, but will not have to “reveal any employee’s affiliation with a specific Jewish-related organization,” Pappert, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, wrote in the 32-page ruling.

A Penn spokesperson told Jewish Insider that the university plans to appeal the ruling. “We remain committed to confronting antisemitism and all forms of discrimination, and have taken multiple steps to prevent and address these despicable events,” the spokesperson said. 

“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.”

 An EEOC spokesperson declined to comment. 

Jewish groups on and off campus, including Hillel, Chabad, Meor and the local federation have asserted that the demands in the subpoena represent a significant overreach in the Trump administration’s nationwide campus investigations into alleged antisemitism. 

Turning over the information would disregard “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 the January legal filing.   

Over the past year, the EEOC has played a key part in the Trump administration’s negotiations with several elite universities —- many of which have been related to antisemitism. In July, Penn reached a deal with the White House to restore some $175 million that was frozen over alleged discrimination of a transgender student athlete.