A federal judge has ordered the University of Pennsylvania to hand over records about Jewish employees on campus to a federal agency as part of an investigation into antisemitic discrimination. But the judge said Tuesday the school did not have to reveal any employee’s affiliation with a specific group. U.S. District Judge Gerald Pappert said employees can refuse to take part in the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigation but the agency “needs the opportunity to talk to them directly to learn if they have evidence of discrimination.” He mostly upheld a subpoena but said Penn does not have to disclose any worker’s affiliation with a Jewish-related organization.
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Judge says Penn must turn over information about Jewish employees in US discrimination probe.
AP Wire
A federal judge has agreed to permanently block the Trump administration from implementing a presidential directive to end federal funding for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service. The two are media entities that the White House has said are counterproductive to American priorities. U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss cited the First Amendment in his decision. The impact was not immediately clear — both because it will likely be appealed and because too much damage to the public-broadcasting system has already been done, both by the president and Congress.
The Trump administration has carried out on a threat to sue the state of Minnesota and its school athletics governing body for allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls sports. The Justice Department alleges in a lawsuit filed Monday that the state Department of Education and the Minnesota State High School League are violating Title IX, a federal law against sex discrimination in educational programs that receive federal money. The administration has filed similar lawsuits against Maine and California, and threatened the federal funding of some universities, including San Jose State in California and the University of Pennsylvania.
A federal judge has upheld North Carolina’s photo voter ID law, setting aside claims by civil rights groups that discrimination against Black and Latino voters warrants striking it down. The decision is a significant win for Republican leaders who initially passed the law in 2018. The ID requirement didn’t get implemented until 2023 because of legal challenges. The NAACP could appeal the decision by Judge Loretta Biggs. Republicans argued the law is race-neutral and contains many more categories of qualifying IDs than was allowed in a 2013 voter ID law that was ultimately struck down. Thirty-six states have voter ID laws.
The Trump administration has opened investigations into how race is considered in admissions at three medical schools, ratcheting up its pressure campaign against colleges and universities. The Justice Department opened the investigations on Wednesday into possible discrimination at the medical schools of Stanford University, Ohio State, and the University of California, San Diego. Harmeet Dhillon, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for civil rights, announced the investigations on X. President Donald Trump has been ramping up scrutiny of universities he decries as overrun by liberal influence, using tools such as control of federal research funding as leverage.
A new AP-NORC poll finds that men and women have different views on who has the advantage when it comes to earning competitive wages. Equal pay emerged as the biggest source of concern for women in the poll — compared to getting an education, a job or a promotion — and an area where men and women are far apart in their perception of gender equity. About 3 in 10 working women say they've personally experienced wage discrimination, compared to about 1 in 10 working men. The findings come at a time when men’s earnings are rising faster than women’s, and the gender wage gap is widening. It also comes as President Donald Trump’s administration dismantles federal agencies and legal tools designed to investigate wage discrimination.
The Justice Department has filed a new lawsuit against Harvard University, accusing it of failing to address antisemitism on campus. The lawsuit, filed Friday, seeks to freeze existing grants and recover money already paid to the university. This is part of a long-standing conflict between the Trump administration and Harvard. The government claims Harvard has not protected Jewish and Israeli students from discrimination during pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Harvard insists it is committed to fighting bias. It argues the administration is violating its First Amendment rights by trying to limit campus activism and change some of its practices for hiring and enrollment. Negotiations have stalled, with the administration demanding large payments to restore funding.
AP Wire
Women across the world will call for equal pay, reproductive rights, education, justice and decision-making jobs during demonstrations marking International Women’s Day. Officially recognized by the United Nations in 1977, International Women’s Day is commemorated in different ways and to varying degrees in places around the world. This years' theme is “Give to Gain.” It comes at a moment where many activists worry that the current political environment may result in a backsliding on many of the rights they’ve long fought for.
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Seven former BlueOval SK employees sue Hardin County EV plant over discrimination and retaliation claims.