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About the Author

Jimmy Alfonso Licon is a philosophy professor at Arizona State University working on ignorance, ethics, cooperation and God. His forthcoming book, Better Not to Know: Why Knowing Less is Sometimes Best, is with Peter Lang Publishing. Before that, he taught at University of Maryland, Georgetown, and Towson University. He lives with his wife, a lawyer, at the foot of the Superstition Mountains. He also abides.

What happens when a tenured law professor makes an offhand joke in class and ends up suspended and fighting for his career? In this conversation, I speak with Ken Levy, a philosopher turned law professor at LSU, about exactly that. On January 14, 2025, six days before Trump's inauguration, Levy made a few remarks about the incoming administration and dropped some profanity in a criminal procedure class. An anonymous student reported it. The governor got involved. Days later, Levy was suspended. We discuss the legal arguments, the limits and promise of tenure, the chilling effects on faculty self-censorship, and what academic freedom actually means when political winds shift. Levy is candid, sharp, and still optimistic.

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