BATON ROUGE - Professor Ken Levy returned to LSU but not his classroom Thursday after the First Circuit halted a judge's ruling that would have reinstated his teaching status.

The Investigative Unit obtained the interim order that the stay was granted, which means that Levy will not be allowed back in class until the appeals court takes further action.

On Thursday afternoon he did what he is allowed to do as a tenured professor — visit his office in the LSU Law School.

Levy was removed from teaching classes in January after comments he made during class against Governor Landry surfaced. A lawsuit says that Levy told students, "F*** the Governor" in response to a video posted by Landry, which showed a clip of Levy's Law School colleague Nicholas Bryner discussing the conduct of students who voted for Trump.

After his removal, attorneys for Levy sued the school, saying that he could not be removed from the classroom for political comments.

In a hearing Tuesday, 19th JDC Judge Tarvald Smith ruled that Levy must be allowed back in class. LSU filed an appeal Wednesday and the legal battle between Levy and LSU advanced to the First Circuit Court of Appeal, which decided Thursday to put a hold on Smith's ruling.

About an hour before Levy's class was scheduled to begin, a message went out to students saying it would be canceled to "give time for everyone to plan next steps."