Federal Judge Approves Trump Effort to Obtain List of Jews From Penn

[BumRushDaShow]

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

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No paywall (gift)

Link to ORDER (PDF viewer) - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XLfjh20DJdEBHar8HghB4cqqlFZzp8IP/view


Obama judge but I *know* that will be immediately appealed.

Article updated.

Original article/headline -

Federal Judge Approves Trump Effort to Extract List of Jews From Penn

March 31, 2026, 2:53 p.m. ET


The Trump administration was within its rights to demand that the University of Pennsylvania turn over information about Jewish people on campus as part of a federal investigation into discrimination at the school, a federal judge decided Tuesday.

The ruling clears a hurdle for the Trump administration as it targets elite schools over accusations of antisemitism. Judge Gerald J. Pappert of the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia issued the decision, which largely sided with the government, writing that Penn's "constitutional claims are easily dispensed with."

He gave Penn until May 1 to comply with the subpoena, though he said that the university would not have to reveal any employee's connection to a specific Jewish-related organization. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has been pursuing an inquiry into potential workplace discrimination against Jewish faculty and staff at Penn, an Ivy League school in Philadelphia, since 2023.

While university officials said they welcomed the investigation, they balked last year after the government issued a subpoena seeking names and phone numbers for members of Jewish groups on campus. The school said much of the information that the government had requested is not collected. Students and faculty groups also condemned the government's demand for a list of Jews, drawing a parallel to methods deployed in Nazi Germany.