BATON ROUGE - State District Judge Tarvald Smith rejected a request from Gov. Jeff Landry on Monday to quash a subpoena for the governor's messages with LSU officials in the removal of LSU law professor Ken Levy from the classroom.

The ruling came during a hearing in Levy's suit against the university that is scheduled to continue Tuesday. The tenured professor wants the university to be forced to return him to teaching duties.

Levy was removed from the classroom in January after making political comments directed at the governor during class.

In November, another professor, Nicholas Bryner, made comments to his students, particularly the ones who voted for President Donald Trump in the general election. 

In a lecture the day after the election, Bryner told students who voted for Trump on the merits of his policy, despite their personal feelings about the man's conduct, that they must "prove that by the way you conduct yourself and by the way that you treat other people around you." 

In response to his comments, Governor Jeff Landry called on LSU to discipline Bryner. 

Levy's response was  "F*** that."

In court Monday, Levy testified that being yanked from the classroom had been the "most devastating thing that ever happened to me."

He also has said the LSU did not follow proper procedure before punishing him.

Jimmy Faircloth, the attorney representing LSU said Levy should not have used his political views in class, nor should he have used what Faircloth described as "salty" language.

Levy responded that his lecture approach is intended to keep students engaged, and that the context of a lecture matters in evaluating the language.

A handful of students and former students gathered outside the courthouse Monday in support of Levy, carrying signs that read "LSU hates free speech."