Louisiana Voice

A stranger visiting Baton Rouge for the first time might well come away convinced that LSU is hawking a new degree program in advanced stupidity and mismanagement available only to members of the administration and the governor’s office.

It’s not enough that the state’s flagship university was so blatantly ham-handed in the way in which it disposed of IVOR van HEERDEN, STEVEN HATFIELD, DR. BRIAN SALVATORE or journalism professor Bob Mann but the administration felt it also had to make a point in the Paul M. Hebert Law Center by making similar examples of law professors NICHOLAS BRYNER and Ken Levy.

Apparently not having learned their lesson with van Heerden, whose litigation cost the school $435,000 (actually closer to $1 million when attorney fees and court costs are factored in), the university found itself again on the losing end of a court decision this week when a state district Judge ORDERED the school to allow Levy back in the classroom.

Following the judge’s decision, Levy said, “Everyone was vulnerable if I lost this.” Specifically speaking about other university faculty members and students, he added, “So, my win is their win.”

Jeff Landry, when he was attorney general, attempted to get Mann fired because Mann had the temerity to criticize Landry for sending a flunky to the campus to meet for a group discussion of the mask mandate during the Covid pandemic.

It was an ugly display of pettiness on Landry’s part and it failed. But when the little man with the huge ego got elected governor, Mann saw the handwriting on the wall and resigned in the knowledge that the governor controls the LSU Board of Stupidvisors and the university’s malleable president.

But the Levy case was unique in that the school’s general counsel Winston DeCuir RESIGNED just as Levy was suing the university, sparking speculation that DeCuir may have resigned over First Amendment issues. That left it up to Deputy General Counsel Carlton “Trey” Jones to represent the school in the ensuing court battle.

Then, during Levy’s trial, however, Jones found himself crossways with the judge who tossed the attorney OUT OF THE COURTROOM over his apparent violation of the court’s order of sequestration. The judge indicated that further punishment could be in store for Jones.

Witnesses were sequestered at the beginning of an evidentiary hearing but Jones discussed evidence with LSU Law School Dean Alena Allen, who was a witness.

So, basically, as one observer noted, LSU’s lead counsel quit over the Levy fiasco, leaving LSU second-stringer to argue the case but he gets himself kicked out of court, leaving former Jindal crony Jimmy Faircloth (See? These guys really are interchangeable) grinning like the proverbial cheshire cat as the only one knocking down billable hours for LSU.

Stand by for more assaults on the First Amendment by both LSU and Landry.