Texas’s Blue Wave Could Help Ousted Professors Win Cases

It’s been 14 months since Tom Alter was abruptly and publicly fired from his tenured job as a history professor at Texas State University. Many have already heard his story: Texas State President Kelly Damphousse—under pressure from state Republicans, including outgoing Gov. Greg Abbott—announced on Facebook that Alter was fired for allegedly “inciting violence” by speaking about anarchist organizing tactics at an online socialism conference he attended in his personal capacity.

Alter, who has fought the decision from day one, is in the middle of a legal battle with the university over reinstatement. Now, as Texas voters ushered in a new regime of Democratic leaders on Election Day, the legal landscape in which Alter and several other ousted professors are fighting became a bit brighter. 

“I have to be kind of guarded,” Alter said, “but it was Governor Abbott that ordered my firing, and it was Ken Paxton’s attorney general’s office that was representing Texas State and contesting my lawsuit for reinstatement, and both of them are gone now. So I can’t help but be optimistic.” 

Even as the Texas Legislature and university governing boards handed down laws and policies limiting academic freedom and shared governance at public institutions, Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and other Republican politicians frequently pulled strings in individual campus disputes. Following public pressure from Republicans—including Abbott, Patrick, state representatives Andy Hopper and Brian Harrison, and Abbott’s senior adviser Nate Schatzline—in September 2025, the Texas A&M system fired former instructor Melissa McCoul, who, Abbott alleged, “acted contrary to Texas law” by discussing gender identity during an English lecture. Like Alter, McCoul is fighting the decision in court. 

That same month, Abbott prompted Texas State to expel a student for imitating the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. He also commented on the University of Texas’s decision to remove psychology professor Art Markman from his administrative position, writing that Texas is “targeting professors who are more focused on pushing leftist ideologies rather than preparing students to lead our nation.” 

With Abbott, Patrick, Paxton and other Republican lawmakers on their way out of office, Alter suspects university presidents will think twice before disciplining faculty for their speech.

“These university presidents who have been willing participants in the dismantling of higher education across Texas, they no longer have their masters behind them,” Alter said. “You don’t have Abbott giving the orders, and you don’t have Paxton providing the muscle.” 

Texas Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa will also have the power to appoint new members to state university boards, which could provide “some important dissenting voices,” said Clyde Barrow, a political science professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Still, Hinojosa’s board appointments must be approved by the state Senate, which will remain under Republican control, and it will take several years for Democrats to take full control of any university governing board because board members serve staggered, multiyear terms, he added.

Barrow has been suspended from his campus for over a year and a half: He was put on administrative leave in May 2025 while the university investigates “allegations of possible [rules] violations” and “inappropriate conduct,” according to an email notice from College of Liberal Arts Dean José Dávila-Montes, which Barrow shared with Inside Higher Ed. Barrow said he still has not received any information about what rules he may have violated; he believes he’s being punished for speaking critically about university administrators and policies. Neither Barrow nor his lawyer has heard from university officials in over a year. 

He has yet to take his case to court, mindful that “courts will typically not get involved in anything involving higher education until you’ve exhausted all of the internal university processes,” he said. “So, one way to keep it out of court is to just not exhaust the process. Don’t move it forward and just sit on it—that’s what they’re doing now.” 

Barrow is considering asking the court for a writ of mandamus, which would compel UTRGV administrators to complete the investigation.

“I’ve asked my attorney about it. He was initially nervous because of the state of courts in Texas, but that has also changed now,” he said.

Incoming AG Nathan Johnson is a Democrat, and he may be more willing to compel the university to turn over emails and other documents for discovery that could help the plaintiffs. Previously, “Ken Paxton’s office always ruled in favor of the university, so it made it difficult for you to collect the information you need to go to court and be effective,” Barrow said. Johnson may also just be less interested in defending these cases.

“Let’s say [UTRGV] decides they want to terminate, and then I go to court. Anytime something goes to court, it’s the attorney general’s office who takes that case, not the university attorneys,” Barrow explained. “So the new attorney general could very well just say, ‘I’m not taking any more of these cases. Go settle it.’” 

Paxton’s office recently argued in Alter’s case that he should not be allowed to sue for reinstatement, only damages. The court disagreed, which “was a real victory,” Alter said, but the attorney general’s office appealed. 

“That was a real blow because the appeal—just on that particular motion—could take a year, and then it could be another year after that before [the case] actually goes to trial. So I was looking at two, possibly three years before this whole thing would be resolved, and that was really daunting,” Alter said. “But now that there’s a new attorney general in Texas, and a new governor, and we’ll have to see. We’re optimistic that they’ll do the right thing.”