The national AAUP, alongside AAUP–Penn, joined a coalition of Jewish students and scholars to intervene in a Trump administration lawsuit seeking the University of Pennsylvania to disclose the private information of its Jewish faculty and students.
On July 23, 2025, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a subpoena to the University of Pennsylvania, demanding that it create and disclose a list of all Jewish and Jewish-affiliated campus organizations, alongside a roster of their members. The EEOC went even further, requesting that Penn provide the personal contact information of its Jews on campus. The university rightly denied this request, citing the privacy interests of its community members. In turn, the EEOC filed suit on November 18 against the university and demanded disclosure of these records.
In response, the AAUP, AAUP–Penn, and a group of Jewish scholars and faculty at Penn filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit as defendants so that the interests of Jewish AAUP members at Penn and nationwide will be zealously represented in the lawsuit. We argued that the EEOC’s request infringes on the rights of Jewish members to free association, particularly as an integral part of their religious identity. Even further, the subpoena threatens the safety, privacy, and academic freedom of Jewish people at Penn. Moreover, enforcement of the subpoena could establish a precedent for the government’s ability to obtain private information about AAUP members of other religious identities, or even simply members of an AAUP chapter.
As our motion notes, to demand that Penn create and compile lists of Jewish people—particularly those active in political causes disfavored by the government—evokes the disturbing history of twentieth-century antisemitism. Beyond Penn itself, this lawsuit has serious implications for the religious liberties of AAUP members nationwide, as well as their right to engage in speech and scholarship without the threat of ideological conformity. The government does not have the right to demand the private, personal information of religious minorities.
On March 31, 2026, a Pennsylvania district court ordered that Penn must comply with the EEOC’s demands for the names and information of employees in campus Jewish organizations. We are deeply concerned about the ruling’s implications for our members’ rights to privacy, academic freedom, and freedom of association. At the same time, our intervention prompted the EEOC to significantly narrow its requests, and it no longer seeks information about employees’ affiliations with Jewish-related organizations on campus. We will continue to oppose the Trump administration’s attacks on academic freedom and freedom of association and to advocate for faculty and students to learn and organize without fear of government surveillance or retaliation. EEOC. v. Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania (E.D. Pa.), Case No. 2:25-cv-06502.
See our motion to intervene here.