Federal Judge Approves Trump Effort to Obtain List of Jews From Penn [View all]

Source: New York Times

March 31, 2026 Updated 3:41 p.m. ET


The Trump administration was within its rights to demand that the University of Pennsylvania turn over information about Jews on campus as part of a federal investigation into discrimination at the school, a federal judge decided Tuesday. The government’s investigation had unified Penn leaders with Jewish students and faculty in opposition to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s subpoena. Many on campus drew parallels between the government’s approach and methods deployed in Nazi Germany.

But the Trump administration has said that its request was typical for discrimination investigations, and Judge Gerald J. Pappert of Philadelphia’s Federal District Court agreed on Tuesday. He gave Penn until May 1 to comply with the administration’s subpoena, though the ruling appeared unlikely to quell the debates around how the administration has pressured top American universities.

In a 32-page ruling, Judge Pappert, an Obama appointee, wrote that Penn’s constitutional claims were “easily dispensed with” and that the government’s subpoena was valid. “Though ineptly worded, the request had an understandable purpose — to obtain in a narrowly tailored way, as opposed to seeking information on all university employees, information on individuals in Penn’s Jewish community who could have experienced or witnessed antisemitism in the workplace,” he wrote.

The judge, however, said that the university would not have to reveal any employee’s connection to “a specific Jewish-related organization.” Penn did not immediately comment.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/31/us/politics/trump-jews-penn-list-judge.html