The LSU Law School Professor Free Speech Hot Potato Saga Continues

This is what I get for assuming that we’d be done with this by now. After a court just ordered LSU to reinstate law professor Ken Levy citing his free speech and due process rights, LSU continued its strategy of appealing decisions that aren’t in its favor. Because why fix what ain’t broken?

The Advocate has coverage:

A state appeals court has halted a lower court’s ruling requiring LSU to return a tenured law professor to his teaching duties after the university suspended him from the classroom in January.

The order from the Louisiana 1st Circuit Court of Appeal came Thursday, just two days after state district Judge Tarvald Smith late Tuesday night signed off on a preliminary injunction barring LSU from interfering with Professor Ken Levy’s employment.

So much for that lengthy hypo I wrote up yesterday. Speaking of hypos — for some reason Ken Levy’s 2022 exam questions got thrown in to the fray. Jeff Landry, Louisiana’s current governor, described Levy’s hypos from the exam as “deranged” and “disgusting”. No shit — Levy taught a Crim law course. Did you expect his questions to revolve around fireworks, trains, and jurisdictional issues? I was willing to cut Landry some slack; its not like Louisiana requires governors to have a legal training. Thing is, Landry does. He got his JD from Loyola University New Orleans College of Law over twenty years ago and the memory gets fuzzy, but no attorney should make it seem to the non-practicing public that Levy’s exam questions were out of the ordinary.

Sure, one of Levy’s hypo questions involved a Republican who was a suspected pedophile who recorded children dancing naked, but hypos often imitate life! Maybe Levy was inspired by Ben Gibson, a Louisiana republican that ran against Mike Johnson. He was arrested and charged with four counts of pornography involving juveniles in 2020. It isn’t that much of a stretch to guess Levy changed a couple of names and factual elements to make the hypo.

Without knowing the 4-D chess moves LSU’s legal team is making behind the scenes, all of this back and forth just looks like a waste of money. Legal fees aside — and that’s a big aside — Prof. Levy is still getting his check whether or not he’s in the classroom.

LSU Law Professor Again Barred From Classroom After Appeals Court Sides With University [The Advocate]

Earlier: Law Professor Ordered Back In Classroom (Again)

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning how to swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

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