A district court judge ruled Tuesday to issue a temporary restraining order that will allow a suing LSU law professor to return to his teaching duties.
Ken Levy, a tenured professor of criminal and constitutional law, was barred from teaching and placed on paid leave on Jan. 18 due to political and profane comments made during a lecture. He sued days later, alleging his freedom of speech and right to due process were violated.
19th Judicial District Court Judge Tarvald Smith said he made his decision in part because being challenged by opposite beliefs is an essential part of law school.
“Law school invites debate,” Smith said.
In her closing argument, Levy’s attorney Jill Craft said LSU’s removal of Levy has caused a chilling effect among LSU professors and students.
“There is no more critical right to the public than the unfettered right to speech,” Craft said.
LSU’s lawyer, Jimmy Faircloth Jr., said Levy has been dealt no harm since he has no right to teach and hasn’t been stripped of salary or access to the law school. LSU said it plans to appeal to stay the restraining order.
The second day of the hearing featured testimonies from LSU President William Tate IV, Law School Dean Alena Allen, as well as professors and students, among others.
Tate testified that the decision to remove Levy came solely from him after seeing a transcript of what he said in class.
“The totality of it was over a line that I would expect to see in a law classroom or any classroom at LSU,” Tate said. “I would do the same thing again if I saw the same rhetoric in another classroom.”
Tate said he was originally made aware of the comments by an anonymous, physical complaint, prompting him to authorize an investigation, which LSU said was “halted” by the motion for a temporary restraining order.
In her testimony, Allen said that when she initially met with Levy to bring concerns about the comments, the representation he gave of what happened differed dramatically from what students she spoke with said.
“There was a credibility gap, and I tended to believe the students,” Allen said.
Tate later said he wasn’t aware of any allegations that Levy had lied, and that didn’t play a factor in his decision. Levy’s team also contested that he was dishonest about his comments.
A LSU lawyer was also thrown out of the courtroom during Tuesday’s proceedings for violating a sequestration order and relaying secret information to a witness.
Since the restraining order is only a preliminary injunction, Smith tentatively scheduled another hearing to review whether the order will be permanent on May 19.
