BATON ROUGE - A state court judge ruled late Tuesday that LSU must allow law professor Ken Levy to return to teaching.

Levy said he will be back in class on Thursday.

Judge Tarvald Smith decided that LSU had not followed its own policies in handling a complaint about the tenured professor's comments in class that were profane and critical of Governor Jeff Landry.

Levy had blasted Landry for publicly urging the university to punish another law professor who had been critical of people who voted to re-elect President Donald Trump.

"F*** that," Levy told the class.

Comments like that led to a complaint that the university resolved by removing Levy from teaching duties. Levy sued to get his classes back.

The hearing began Monday afternoon after some of Levy's students and former students gathered outside the courthouse to support him. They held signs saying, among other things, "LSU hates free speech."

During the course of the two-day hearing, Smith tossed out one of LSU's lawyers after he acknowledged having discussed the case with LSU law school dean Alena Allen, who was a subpoenaed witness and not allowed to get information about what was happening in court.

Smith ruled that no testimony had suggested that students' grades had been threatened or that Levy had encouraged violence against the governor. The profanity was not sufficient to trigger the punishment, he said.

At the hearing LSU President William Tate testified that he had made the decision to remove Levy.

Landry had been told to hand over documents detailing his communication with LSU officials about Levy's situation.