A Louisiana state appeals court has halted a lower court ruling earlier this week that would have required Louisiana State University (LSU) to allow a law professor to resume teaching after he was suspended for violating school policy by using intimidating and profane language against public office holders in the classroom. Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry (R) and others are pointing out that the professor has a history of using explicit language in class and that public universities that fail to uphold behavioral standards could lose taxpayer funding.

After an LSU law student complained that law professor Ken Levy made “inappropriate and intimidating” comments on the first day of class, the university suspended him with pay last month. In audio recordings of a lecture, Levy referred to Landry’s previous criticism of him, saying, “f*** the governor.” He then went on to disparage the election of President Donald Trump, remarking, “I couldn’t believe that f****r won.”

Following his suspension, Levy filed a lawsuit against LSU claiming that the university had violated his free speech and due process rights. On Tuesday, a district court judge ordered LSU to allow the professor back in the classroom on free speech grounds. But two days later, a state appeals court put a hold on the decision, which “relieves LSU of the obligation to return him to his teaching responsibilities,” according to an attorney representing the university.

On Thursday, Landry joined “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” to discuss the situation, noting that Levy has a track record of using offensive and sexually explicit language in class.

“[W]e … got a hold [of] tests online … that he gave out that basically talks about a 17-year-old having sex with a pumpkin … and he talks about how [a] pedophile is a Republican,” he detailed. “And I mean, this is just not the type of conduct that we would expect of a professor, especially in a law school.”

Perkins concurred. “I looked over [the] final exam that he gave to his students. … I was actually speechless. This is beyond offensive. [A]s a psychology minor, this reveals a perverted mind of the professor that this would be his focus. … [A]s a law professor or any professor for that matter, they hold a position of influence in the classroom. … [H]e intimidated his students. He demands his First Amendment right, his free speech, but he demanded that he not be recorded because he didn’t want the students passing on what he was saying behind closed doors.”

Landry went on to observe that there are guardrails on First Amendment free speech rights in certain settings, particularly in classrooms.

“[T]he good thing is that LSU seems to be standing on the side of the students and on the side of dignity and on the side of recognizing that in institutional settings such as educational institutions, you don’t have the right to just say anything — just like a person doesn’t have a right to go into a movie theater and yell ‘fire!’” he noted. “… [W]hen you have a captured audience, when you are hired by a public university … that public university has … a set of standards under which they expect their professors must adhere to. On top of that, he’s a lawyer, so there’s a set of professional responsibilities — as lawyers, we have a code of professional responsibility.”

Landry further highlighted how there appears to be a double standard among progressives in higher education when it comes to free speech. “[W]e found a paper that he wrote … in 2023, under which he said that schools should have the right to discipline teachers who basically support President Trump. … And he made the argument that the school in an educational setting should be able to discipline teachers [and] that those were ‘radical ideas.’ … So here we have a professor who says one thing as long as you are in line with his ideology. But when you’re not, then he has a different standard.”

Perkins also pointed out that as a public university that receives taxpayer money from the state, the Louisiana legislature has the right to withhold funds from LSU if it does not enforce a code of conduct for its professors. “[H]aving been in the legislature, having been a part of the budget process there and knowing how LSU every year [wants] more money for their budget, that could be an issue if LSU is not aggressive in reining in this type of behavior in the classroom.”

Landry agreed. “I can tell you, I spoke to a couple of different legislators who had an educational committee hearing today. … [T]hey were aghast when I sent them this type of threat. … It’s … a shock [to] your conscience. And I do believe that if the school does not take action, that there [are] going to be repercussions for allowing professors to act like this in their classrooms.”

“This is not just a Louisiana issue,” Perkins concluded. “[T]his is a problem in these higher educational institutions across the country. And it’s time we address it.”