The California Faculty Association and other unions are seeking a preliminary injunction preventing Cal State University administrators from turning over union members’ personal information in response to federal subpoenas without first providing notice to affected employees and an opportunity for them to object.
CFA attorneys filed court papers on Nov. 3 with Judge Stephen Goorvitch alleging that since January the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights have been actively engaged in a campaign by the Trump administration to control the content of research, scholarship, teaching and activism at American colleges and universities.
“Given the current federal administration’s defiance of the norms and laws that normally constrain its authority, petitioners cannot rely on federal agencies to appropriately limit the scope of their investigations or maintain sensitive personal information in confidence,” the CFA court papers state.
The CFA represents about 1,500 CSU faculty at Cal State Los Angeles and some 25,000 members systemwide. One of the other union plaintiffs, the United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America Local 4123, is the exclusive bargaining representative for some 10,000 CSU academic student employees.
The EEOC filed a complaint against Cal State Los Angeles in January involving antisemitism allegations. On Aug. 11, the administration notified employees that it had provided the EEOC with “publicly available university contact information” for all employees, according to the CFA attorneys’ court papers.
The school later disclosed student employees’ personal contact information, demographic data and employment information to the EEOC by late September, the CFA lawyers further state.
“CSU’s disclosure of the personal information of Cal State LA employees, combined with its announcement of federal systemwide complaints, has deeply impacted petitioners and their members,” according to the CFA attorneys’ court papers.
The CFA and UAW have expended significant resources responding to union members’ concerns that their personal information will be used to surveil them, that they will be targeted for employment consequences based on their activism, online speech and scholarship and that union members who are not U.S. citizens may face unjust immigration enforcement, the CFA attorneys contend in their pleadings.
“The federal government’s threats are serious,” according to the CFA attorneys’ court papers, which note that on Sept. 30, a federal judge held that the Trump administration illegally targeted pro-Palestinian student activists with deportation threats to silence their speech critical of Israel.
A hearing on the request for a preliminary injunction is scheduled for Dec. 5.