PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The federal government's demand for information about the membership of Jewish groups from the University of Pennsylvania in an investigation into whether antisemitism has created a hostile environment for employees landed Tuesday before a federal judge who will decide whether to enforce a subpoena.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's probe of the Ivy League school in Philadelphia has cited several incidents, including that someone had shouted antisemitic obscenities and destroyed property at a Jewish student life center, a Nazi swastika was painted on an academic building and “hateful graffiti” was left outside a fraternity.
The investigation has also focused on actions related to protests over the war in Gaza, and Penn's response to that and other incidents.
The hearing before U.S. District Judge Gerald Pappert on Tuesday involved the EEOC's request, filed against Penn's Board of Trustees in November, seeking to enforce an administrative subpoena it issued as part of the investigation into claims the school has subjected its Jewish faculty and employees to an illegal hostile work environment based on national origin, religion or race.
Pappert did not say when he might rule after the four-hour hearing.
The legal dispute began in December 2023, when the EEOC accused Penn of a pattern of antisemitic behavior, as it wrote in a court document last fall, and said it was acting “in light of the probable reluctance of Jewish faculty and staff to complain of a harassing environment due to fear of hostility and potential violence directed against them.”
The EEOC wrote in November that Penn’s “workplace is replete with antisemitism,” and it told the judge that investigators think “identification of those who have witnessed and/or been subjected to the environment is essential for determining whether the work environment was both objectively and subjectively hostile.”
Penn’s lawyers wrote in January the school had cooperated for more than two years, turning over about 900 pages of material.
The school has said the only current dispute is what it called the EEOC's “extraordinary and unconstitutional demand" that it put together lists of employees that reveal their Jewish faith or ancestry, associations with Jewish organizations, affiliation with Penn's Jewish studies programs and other details — including home addresses, phone numbers and emails.
Vic Walczak, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer, said the five groups his organization represents in the case are concerned about the collection and potential use of the information the government has demanded.
The groups -- some that are specifically Jewish-related, and others that consist more broadly of faculty -- support investigating antisemitism but feel “this is not the way to do it,” Walczak said.
“We’re on the same side as Penn -- we’re not opposing an investigation, what we’re opposing is the court forcing Penn to create, essentially, lists of participants in Jewish organizations and turning over confidential information, including home addresses,” Walczak said. A Penn spokesperson said in an email only that the school will await Pappert's decision.
Penn says it offered to notify all of its employees about the investigation and to tell them how to get in contact with the agency, but that was rejected by the EEOC last fall. The school argued that approach would “not invade employees’ privacy, sense of safety, and constitutional rights or echo terrifying periods of history for Jewish communities.”
Messages seeking comment were left Tuesday for the EEOC's regional attorney, Debra Lawrence, and at the agency's Philadelphia office.
Scolforo contributed from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
FILE - The University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia is seen Wednesday, May 15, 2019. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
FILE - University of Pennsylvania signage is seen in Philadelphia, May 15, 2019. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — The FBI said it found explosive residue in a Pennsylvania storage unit as part of an investigation into two men charged with bringing homemade bombs to a protest outside the home of New York City’s mayor.
Emir Balat, 18, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, told police after their arrests Saturday that they were inspired by the Islamic State group, according to law enforcement officials and a criminal complaint.
The men live in the Philadelphia suburbs and traveled together to New York City to carry out the attack near Gracie Mansion in Manhattan, officials said. In response to police questioning, Balat said he hoped to accomplishing something “even bigger” than the Boston Marathon bombing, which killed three people, the complaint said.
Overnight Monday, FBI bomb technicians conducted controlled detonations of the explosive residue found at a public storage facility in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, near where Balat’s family lives, the agency said.
The explosion resulted in “several loud bangs,” the Middletown Township Police Department said Tuesday, adding that there was no threat to residents. The FBI said Monday that it had conducted multiple searches in connection with the investigation.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday called the attack "absolutely despicable" and said government investigators and prosecutors won’t rest until the perpetrators are brought to justice.
Much remains unknown about the motives, planning and relationship between Balat and Kayumi.
Court documents show Emir Balat’s father, Selahattin Balat, is a native of Turkey who was granted asylum in the United States in 1998 and later became a U.S. citizen. In a 2009 bankruptcy filing, he listed his occupation as painter and said he had three children.
Emir Balat is a senior at Neshaminy High School in Langhorne. A school spokesperson said he enrolled in a virtual program in September and had not attended in-person classes since.
His lawyer, Mehdi Essmidi, said his client had “complicated stuff going on” in his personal life, without elaborating. Essmidi said he did not believe the two young men had known each other for long.
Kayumi is from Newtown, about 4 miles (6.5 kilometers) north of Langhorne. He graduated in 2024 from Council Rock High School North, according to a school spokesperson.
His attorney did not speak to reporters following a court hearing Monday and declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press.
Prosecutors, police and FBI officials say Balat and Kayumi drove to New York City on Saturday and joined a throng of counterprotesters at a small, anti-Muslim rally organized by the far-right Christian nationalist Jake Lang.
Journalists photographed Balat hurling a device, smoking with a lit fuse, that was later found to contain the explosive TATP. The object, which also contained nuts and bolts, extinguished itself without harming anyone.
Balat then dropped a second object near some police officers and tried to run, but was tackled and arrested, according to a court complaint.
Balat and Kayumi were being held without bail after their court appearance on charges that include attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and using a weapon of mass destruction. They were not required to enter a plea.
New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Monday there were no indications that the attack was connected to the ongoing war in Iran, but said the city remained on a heightened state of alert.
On Tuesday afternoon, a park near the mayor’s residence was evacuated and several surrounding streets were closed as police investigated reports of a “suspicious device.”
The object was later determined to be non-threatening.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani was not home at the time and Gracie Mansion was not evacuated, a City Hall spokesperson said.
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Associated Press reporter Anthony Izaguirre contributed to this report.
NYPD police officer and K-9 dog walks outside Carl Schurz Park as they investigate suspicious device, Tuesday, March 10, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Jake Lang demonstrates outside Gracie Mansion after a news conference by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani , Monday, March 9, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks during a news conference at Gracie Mansion, Monday, March 9, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)
Emir Balat, left, and Ibrahim Kayumi, far right, are escorted into Manhattan federal court in New York, Monday, March, 9, 2026, for arraignment on charges that include attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization and using a weapon of mass destruction after they were arrested for bringing and throwing explosives at a protest two days earlier. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
From left, defense attorney Mehdi Essmidi, defendant Emir Balat, defense attorney Michael Arthus and defendant Ibrahim Kayumi wait for the start of arraignment proceedings in Manhattan federal court in New York, Monday, March, 9, 2026, on charges that include attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization and using a weapon of mass destruction in New York after Balat and Kayumi were arrested for bringing and throwing explosives at a protest two days earlier. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
Police detain Emir Balat after he attempted to detonate an improvised explosive device during a counterprotest against far right influencer Jake Lang staging an anti-Islam protest outside Gracie Mansion, Saturday, March 7, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Julius Constantine Motal)
