A federal court has blocked the Trump administration’s proposal to publicly disclose the names of foreign donors who give gifts to American universities, including Penn.
United States District Judge Tanya Chutkan granted the Association of American Universities’ motion last week, barring the Department of Education from publicizing the names of institutional donors for 28 days. The association filed its complaint against the federal government on Oct. 1 over its decision to make donor names public after six years of confidentiality.
The decision comes amid an ongoing Education Department investigation into Penn’s foreign funding records over “inaccurate” and “incomplete” disclosures.
In response to a request for comment, an Education Department spokesperson wrote that the department does not comment on investigations. In January, a spokesperson wrote that there had been “no updates” regarding the investigation, which was opened in May 2025.
Penn is one of 69 member universities in AAU, which also includes the rest of the Ivy League, Stanford University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The association advocates for “the interests of research universities in the United States” and seeks to “strengthen the partnership between our federal government and research universities.”
A request for comment was left with a University spokesperson and a spokesperson for Penn’s International Student and Scholar Services.
“AAU has shown a likelihood of success on its claim that the Publication Decision is arbitrary and capricious,” Chutkan wrote in the opinion, adding that the plaintiffs “are also likely to show that they will ‘suffer irreparable harm unless preliminary relief is granted.’”
Under the order, the federal government cannot release donor names for at least the next 28 days, though the court can extend the injunction at its discretion.
The association called the department’s decision to publicize donor names “a broken promise” in an Oct. 2 press release.
“Publication would expose donors to harassment, reputational harm, and, in some cases, real danger in their home countries,” the release read. “It would signal to every donor and every institution that a federal agency’s written commitment cannot be trusted.”
According to the complaint, the Trump administration began requesting that universities also report names and addresses of their donors in 2020. At the time, the complaint read, the Education Department “expressly and repeatedly promised that the government would not publicly disclose covered donors’ names.”
The plaintiffs argued that they were not legally required to comply with the demands under Section 117 of the Higher Education Act but did so anyway “in the spirit of transparency and partnership.”
They added that promises of privacy have shaped their communications with prospective donors, writing that “many gifts over the last six years have been made in reliance on that promise of confidentiality.”
Penn ranks fifth among American higher education institutions in the amount of foreign funding received, according to data the Education Department published earlier this year. The University has garnered $2.8 billion in foreign gifts between 1986 and Dec. 16, 2025.
The federal government has until Oct. 13 to file any motion in opposition to the injunction, Chutkan wrote. If it does, the Association of American Universities will have until Oct. 20 to submit a response.
Senior reporter Lavanya Mani covers legal affairs and can be reached at [email protected]. At Penn, she studies comparative literature. Follow her on X @LavanyaMani_.
Source: www.thedp.com
