BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – Private attorneys hired by Louisiana State University Friday morning asked a district court to either stay or dissolve a temporary restraining order involving LSU law professor Ken Levy.
However, on Friday afternoon, District Court Judge Don Johnson denied the request. LSU will likely now ask a higher court, The First Circuit, to consider the request.
In motions filed Friday, attorneys for LSU asked that the district court move swiftly, as Levy is set to return to the classroom in just four days. The court did indeed move swiftly and issued its denial within a matter of hours.
In the court filing, LSU revealed, for the first time, that it is investigating Levy following “student complaints about inappropriate, vulgar, and potentially harassing conduct in the classroom.
”LSU administrators removed Levy from the classroom last week after hearing a recording of a law class lecture he gave on the first day of the Spring 2025 semester.
During the lecture, Levy is heard saying a slew of curse words and making unflattering comments about both Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry and President Donald Trump.
The new court filings said Levy is on administrative leave with full pay and benefits and the university investigates the allegations.
Attorney Jill Craft said the filings by LSU are interesting in that, she claims, they “keep adding more items to the reasons they are not allowing Mr. Levy to teach.”
”It appears that LSU is trying to come up with more and additional reasons as to why they have taken this unconstitutional action against Professor Levy, which underscores how illegitimate it was in the first place and utterly lacking in due process,” Craft said Friday afternoon.
On Thursday, January 30, Judge Don Johnson issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) in the case, ordering LSU to allow Levy to return to the classroom until a hearing next month.
In its filing Friday, LSU asked the court to dismiss the TRO altogether or to delay its implementation until LSU can complete its own investigation into the Levy case.
LSU has hired a private law firm, Faircloth Melton Bash & Green, to represent the university in the matter.
“This matter is simply an employment dispute in the early stages of an administrative process where the employee’s rights are fully protected,” attorney Jimmy Faircloth, representing LSU, said in the filing. “Tenure ensures due process prior to termination. It does not create a right to seek judicial relief prior to a final administrative decision.”
In the filing, Faircloth says the court should get rid of the TRO to “diffuse the public fiasco, let the administrative procedure run its course, and issue a ruling at the appropriate time.
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