NO! STOP IT!! THE COURT DID *NOT* TELL UPENN TO TURN OVER A LIST OF ALL THEIR JEWISH STUDENTS AND EMPLOYEES! HERE’S WHAT’S REALLY GOING ON
(Remember I promised you that I would *not* do any April Fools pranks, this is a real case and outcome.)
There’s been a whole lot of chatter and misinformation going around social media, and even news outlets, saying that the Court “approved a subpoena” and ordered UPenn to “turn over lists of all of the Jewish students, teachers, etc.” to the Trump administration.
That is *so not what actually happened*, but of course the minute you throw {X minority or X religion} into a headline, it takes off like wildfire. So I’m here to give you the facts, and the actual documents.
In 2023 – *2023* – during the *Biden* administration – the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued what’s called a Commissioner’s Charge (included for Notes from the Front members) which basically is a document saying “This organization is violating equal employment opportunity laws.”
Specifically, the 2023 Commissioner’s Charge against UPenn said, in part, that the EEOC Commissioner had “reason to believe that since at least November 2022, the employer has engaged in a pattern or practice of harassment based on national origin, religion, and/or race against Jewish employees, in violation of Title VII. Specifically, the unlawful practices include, but are not necessarily limited to subjecting Jewish faculty (including tenured, non-tenured, and adjunct professors), staff, and other employees (including, but not limited to, students employed by the university) to an unlawful hostile work environment based on national origin, religion, and/or race.”
Now, why did the Commissioner (Andrea Lucas at the time, she is now the Chair) have reason to believe that?
Because of, among other things, “Title VI complaints filed against the employer in federal court and with the U.S. Department of Education; sworn testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce; other witness statements; and the initiation of investigations against the employer by the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce.”
Ok, so this is the background, that *during the Biden administration* the EEOC opened an investigation based on, among other things, *complaints they received* saying that UPenn was … wait for it… discriminating against Jewish members of faculty and other employees.
And who was among the people bringing those complaints?
*Jewish members of the faculty and other employees*.
On March 27, 2025, pursuant to the Commissioner’s Charge, the EEOC sent a request for information to UPenn. The requested information, among other things, included a request for *complaints* that *employees* had filed, along with the information about those *employees*. It also asked for documents and records that UPenn had *already* produced to the Department of Education (DOE) related to the *DOE’s* investigation into UPenn’s alleged discrimination “based on national origin (Jewish/Israeli ancestry)” (This request is also included for Notes from the Front members.)
The cover letter that was sent with the request for information explained that if UPenn did not cooperate with this request for information that the next step would be the issuance of a subpoena for the same information.
Guess what.
UPenn did not cooperate.
So *four months later*, having given UPenn time to cooperate, the EEOC issued a subpoena (included for Notes from the Front members).
Guess what.
UPenn failed to comply with the subpoena as well.
They didn’t just ignore it, they refused.
So the EEOC went to court to compel UPenn to comply with the subpoena. The Declaration of Deputy EEOC Director Karen McDonough that accompanied the EEOC’s request to compel lays out a very clear, step-by-step history of what led up to the EEOC’s request. (This declaration is also included for Notes from the Front members.)
This brings us to yesterday’s order by District Court Judge Gerald Pappert (an Obama appointee), ordering UPenn to comply with the subpoena.
He is *not* impressed with UPenn, in fact they did themselves *no* favours. Among other things that he says in his opinion and order (included for Notes from the Front members):
“Penn and other groups and associations the Court permitted to intervene significantly raised the dispute’s temperature by impliedly and even expressly comparing the EEOC’s efforts to protect Jewish employees from antisemitism to the Holocaust and the Nazis’ compilation of “lists of Jews.” Such allegations are unfortunate and inappropriate.”
And then:
“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. The Court grants accordingly the EEOC’s application for enforcement and orders Penn to respond to the subpoena, though without revealing any employee’s affiliation with a specific organization.”
The rest of the opinion and order, included for Notes from the Front members, is equally direct, and pretty revealing both about the issues before the Court, and the discrimination that the EEOC is trying to investigate.
But what it is decidedly NOT about is “the Court forcing UPenn to turn over the names of every Jewish person at UPenn.”
Notes from the Front members: the EEOC determination, request for information, subpoena, declaration in support of motion to compel, and order, are all in your inbox now!
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https://annepmitchell.substack.com/p/no-stop-it-the-court-did-not-tell
P.S. If you actually read all the way to the bottom please leave a comment that includes the words “cheesesteak”. It will show me that my efforts aren’t in vain and that people actually *do* read these things, and it will drive those who just skim crazy wondering why everyone is talking about cheesesteak. ;~) (Darn, now I’m hungry for vegan cheesesteak!)
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