Jeff Landry is ruining LSU’s reputation, and its leaders are helping him do it

Why the Republican governor is after a law school professor who hurt his feelings; and let’s give Bill Cassidy a piece of our mind about RFK Jr’s nomination

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

[Note: Afer this post was published, a state court judge in Baton Rouge ruled in favor of Prof. Ken Levy and ordered LSU to reinstate him to his classes. You can read the Baton Rouge Advocate story at this link.]

Gov. Jeff Landry and the very serious free speech advocates who surround him have long said they believe in free expression for everyone, especially those on university campuses.

And yet, in the first significant test of whether they will tolerate speech they don’t like, Landry and his flunkies in the LSU president’s office and on the LSU Board of Supervisors failed miserably to uphold the free-speech principles Landry has articulated.

After what he said was a joking-but-critical reference to Landry before a class earlier this month, LSU Law Center Prof. Ken Levy, who teaches constitutional and criminal law, was booted out of his classes on Jan 18. As the Louisiana Illuminator reported on Thursday:

In his affidavit, Levy says that he brought up Landry’s comments regarding fellow law professor Nick Bryner and asked his students not to record his lectures because he didn’t want to be targeted by Landry.

“If Governor Landry were to retaliate against me, then f*** the governor and f*** that. — all of which was a joke and clearly said in a joking manner to highlight my no recording policy in class and the First Amendment,” Levy wrote in the affidavit.

Landry called on LSU to discipline Bryner last year for his comments about President Trump the day after the presidential election.

Levy argues in the affidavit that the actions taken against him stifle not only his right to free speech and academic freedom but that of other faculty members.

LSU did not follow the clearly delineated process for reprimanding or punishing a faculty member accused of misconduct by locking Landry out of his classroom. Instead, the university deputized LSU’s director of Employee Relations to tell Levy he would not be allowed to teach this semester.

According to the Baton Rouge Advocate:

The comments at issue were made during a Jan. 14 class lecture, after which one of Levy’s students “allegedly complained to the governor,” according to the lawsuit.

Levy in an affidavit says he learned that university leaders were then notified, including LSU President William Tate IV, Provost Roy Haggerty, Board of Supervisors Chair Scott Ballard, and law school Dean Alena Allen.

Levy said he met with Allen to discuss the comments on Jan. 16. By Saturday Jan. 18, Levy received a letter from LSU’s Office of Human Resource Management suspending him from teaching.

That’s not how LSU is allowed to punish a faculty member. And based on this shocking denial of due process, a state court judge must promptly rule in Levy’s favor and order LSU to return him to the classroom.

To do otherwise would be to say that LSU is not required to follow the First Amendment and university policies about academic freedom, as well as its rules about handling misconduct allegations by faculty members.

What LSU did to Levy is not only a shocking violation of university policy but also an appalling violation of what Landry claims to believe about free speech on college campuses.

It’s even more appalling because it appears the actions taken to silence Levy were initiated in Landry’s direction after a student in Levy’s class complained to the governor’s office.

Before we go deeper into this, let’s review what Landry claims to believe about free speech on college campuses.

Last year, the governor signed an executive order mandating that public universities foster an atmosphere conducive to free expression of thought by students and faculty. The order said in part:

Constitutionally protected expressive conduct that is abridged or restrained causes harm to the State of Louisiana and its citizens and violates the free speech rights of the speaker to transmit and the audience to receive the expression;

WHEREAS, RS. 17:3399.32(A) specifically protects expressive activities at public postsecondary education institutions by students, administrators, faculty members, staff members, and invited guests; . . .

WHEREAS, the chilling effect that threats, intimidation, and self-censorship have on free expression and discourse in the academic setting hinders the pursuit of knowledge and is antithetical to the educational environment;. . .

NOW THEREFORE, I, JEFF LANDRY . . . do hereby order and direct as follows:

Section 1: No state agency, department, office, commission, board, entity, officer, or employee of the State of Louisiana shall take any action or permit or cause another to take any action on their behalf, including during the course of investigating or adjudicating reported claim of discrimination or bias, that would cause a public postsecondary education institution to deny, abridge, or restrain the lawful exercise of free speech or expression on or immediately adjacent to the grounds of any such institution contrary to R.S. 17:3399.31 ef seq;

You might expect me to note here that LSU’s punishment of Levy clearly violates Landry’s order. And it does.

But that would require us to entertain the preposterous notion that Landry cares about the free speech rights of anyone beyond his precious supporters who are offended when harsh words about him or his policies fall upon their tender ears.

When he was attorney general, Landry asked LSU to punish me because he didn’t like that I called out his lies and disinformation about COVID-19 vaccines. In demanding that LSU reprimand me for protected speech (as a member of the LSU Faculty Senate, I was denouncing the lies in a letter from Landry read aloud to the Senate), Landry showed everyone that he’s not interested in free speech. He's determined to punish anyone who dares to criticize him.

That Landry is a thin-skinned hypocrite will come as no surprise to any sentient being in Louisiana. But it may surprise some to learn that LSU is now a wholly owned subsidiary of a Republican governor.

Did LSU President Bill Tate muster the courage to stand up to Landry’s assault on his faculty? Of course not. Tate sold his soul to Landry long ago. What about Provost Roy Haggerty, the university’s chief academic officer? Did he defend Levy’s free speech rights? Of course not. He’s as cowardly as Tate and rolled over to please the governor and his allies on the LSU Board.

Did the dean of the Law Center, Alena Allen, stand up for Levy’s free speech rights? Not that I can tell. I’ve seen no evidence she’s willing to defend her faculty like any decent, self-respecting dean should do.

At the highest levels of the LSU Law Center and the LSU System Office, cowardice and subservience to a thin-skinned autocrat reign.

It appears the only people at LSU willing to defend Levy are some of his colleagues on the faculty and a group of law students who are rightly outraged that their university’s cowardly leaders bowed down without protest to Landry’s order to silence dissent at LSU.

Maybe the LSU Faculty Senate will soon rise and demand justice for Levy. Maybe more rank-and-file faculty across campus will speak out in his defense.

For now, however, it appears Levy’s only hope is that a judge will force LSU to follow its processes and hold a fair hearing before it punishes him for hurting Landry’s feelings.

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How you can help LSU Prof. Ken Levy

I retired from LSU last year because of what Landry did to me in December 2021. I knew when he became governor, I would be in his crosshairs again. I had planned to step down in a few years, anyway, and I accelerated that plan after Landry’s election because I didn’t want him punishing my school in order to punish me.

I also didn’t want to spend the last year or two of my time at LSU fighting in court to keep my job. I wanted to leave on my terms, and I did.

Ken Levy is a hero. He is standing and fighting, not just for every other faculty member at LSU who might offend Landry, but also for the principles of academic freedom and free speech that make a university the marketplace of ideas and the daring research generator it should be.

When faculty and students fear offending the governor, LSU ceases to be a university and becomes a self-censoring extension of Jeff Landry’s political operation.

Bill Tate, Roy Haggerty, and the LSU Board are doing their best to make it that. Ken Levy, his lawyer, and others backing him are doing their best to save LSU and its reputation.

This legal fight isn’t only about whether Levy keeps his job. It’s also about whether LSU maintains its respectability, which is very much at risk as I write.

That’s why I’m asking you to support Levy’s legal defense.

It takes a lot of money to fight LSU in court.

If you love LSU as much as I do, Levy’s fight is our battle, too. If you care about the principles of free speech and academic freedom at all our universities, Levy’s fight is our battle, too.

Some of Levy’s friends have created a GoFundMe account. The money they raise will help pay for his legal defense. You can contribute at this link.

Please consider helping him. Any contribution will help.

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Sen. Bill Cassidy might vote for RFK, Jr. Don’t let him

In the interest of space, I won’t review what occurred the last few days before the U.S. Senate committees considering Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s nomination to run the Department of Health and Human Services.

You can read about it here and here. Suffice it to say that Kennedy is grossly unfit for the job and unqualified to lead any government organization, especially one that oversees public health.

I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to say that Kennedy is a loony conspiracy theorist, an aggressive prevaricator, and a highly unsavory character. He should never have been nominated. And the Senate shouldn’t be holding hearings on this nomination. However, senators are, and Louisiana’s senior senator, Bill Cassidy, is officially undecided about how he will vote.

Cassidy knows the right thing to do. But he doesn’t want Donald Trump attacking him over the next two years as he seeks reelection.

That means he needs to hear from his constituents, and we must urge him to do the right thing. Please call Cassidy at (225) 929-7711 and tell him where you stand and what you want him to do.

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