Yesterday, we reported that Texas State University (TXST) had terminated Thomas Alter, a newly tenured associate professor of history, following remarks he made on a virtual September 7th Socialist Horizon conference. At the time of that publication, we didn’t yet know that a Hays County district judge had already ordered the university to reinstate him under an injunction while his lawsuit proceeds.
The reinstatement is not a full return to the classroom. According to sources, Alter will remain off the teaching schedule and without pay while his case undergoes review through TXST’s faculty investigatory process.
As we previously reported, Alter was terminated just a few days after receiving tenure, when remarks he made during the virtual conference were secretly recorded and circulated online. Speaking over Zoom, Alter declared: “without organization, how can anyone expect to overthrow the most bloodthirsty, profit-driven mad organization in the history of the world—that of the U.S. government.” (You can listen to his remarks here).
The recording was made public by Karlyn Borysenko, who runs the YouTube channel DecodeTheLeft and describes herself as an anti-communist cult leader. She traces the ways leftist student groups, political organizations, legal nonprofits, labor unions, and media outlets collaborate to drive national campaigns, and demonstrates how these leftist groups and organizations utilize universities both as a platform for activism and as a focus of their activism—or even as victims of their activism. It is worth noting, however, that Borysenko also platforms figures such as Nick Fuentes, an alt-right activist, who was the target of one of Peter Wood’s latest pieces—Wood, president of the National Association of Scholars—for Fuentes’s anti-Semitic views.
Within days, the footage recorded by Borysenko was picked up by media outlets and sent to politicians. On September 10, TXST president Kelly Damphousse announced Alter’s dismissal, calling his actions “incompatible with [his] responsibilities as a faculty member at Texas State University.”
We later learned, too, from the Texas Tribune’s coverage that Alter’s initial firing sparked a rally in the San Marcos area, where local politicians and advocacy groups gathered to demand his reinstatement. Speakers characterized the firing as “indicative of authoritarian government overreach and pre-emptive compliance from university officials.”
In yesterday’s report, we noted the irony of it all. Alter’s lawsuit contends that the university violated his First Amendment rights and breached contractual obligations tied to his tenure, invoking the very constitutional principles that many of his ideological allies previously dismissed when conservative faculty faced discipline for resisting mandates enforcing “diversity, equity, and inclusion” or gender ideology.
[RELATED: Texas State University Professor Told My Class ‘We’re Not Born With a Sex,’ It’s Assigned]
While we do not want to speculate, the judge’s requiring TXST to reinstate Alter suggests his legal case is strong. The university may ultimately be found to have insufficient grounds to terminate him, particularly if the court determines that his speech did not cross the line into incitement of violence.
Time will tell, but regardless of the case’s outcome, it serves as yet another example on a growing list of leftists hugging onto the First Amendment as the cultural pendulum swings right.
With that, we will continue to track this case and provide updates as developments occur.
Follow Jared Gould and Leona Salinas on X.
Thomas Alter at a pro-Palestine protest on the Texas State University campus, April 2025, wearing a black T-shirt reading “Free Palestine.” Photo by Leona Salinas.
Thomas Alter is an associate history professor, and the university would ordinarily recognize his conference participation as scholarship or public service. Therefore his remarks fall should be protected by academic freedom as well as the first amendment.
The university president fired Alter for ‘conduct that advocates for inciting violence’. This is bogus, and the judge saw through it. Either one incites violence, or one doesn’t. Incitement needs to be specific, but Alter’s comments quoted comments are general. Expect Alter’s lawsuit to succeed.
No, the judge only said that the university had to follow its own procedures, that the “sentence now, verdict later” approach so popular in academia today is wrong.
Note that the judge didn’t put him back on payroll — he’s on UNPAID leave.
Note that the judge didn’t put him back in the classroom.
If the judge “saw through it” and “expected [the] lawsuit to succeed”, the judge would have at least put him back on payroll.
As to “conduct that advocates for inciting violence”, there is what he actually said:
““without organization, how can anyone expect to overthrow the most bloodthirsty, profit-driven mad organization in the history of the world—that of the U.S. government.”
Let me take the adjectives and prepositional phrases out and we have:
“overthrow the U.S. government.”
That not only is advocacy for inciting violence, but textbook moral turpitude.
This is Hayes County, not Austin, although even in Austin, I doubt that advocating the overthrow of the US Government is acceptable.
That is what I mean by “Moral Turpitude” and it will (in the end) be Texas Jurors and not the AAUP that determines if such statements are still acceptable. I don’t think they are.
And to further complicate things, advocating the overthrow of the US Government is a violation of the Hatch Act…
And the other thing to remember is that the legislature can eliminate the entire history department — or the entire university. Never forget that Mitt Romney got rid of Bill Bulger.
I thought his remarks were no grounds for much of anything, let alone firing him, as much as I found his remarks kind of juvenile.
As for “leftists hugging onto the First Amendment” — if that’s what it takes keep the First Amendment — I’m for it.
Advocating the overthrow of the US Government?
In Texas?!?
“Alter will remain off the teaching schedule and without pay while his case undergoes review through TXST’s faculty investigatory process.”
This is not an unreasonable decision — it’s what TXST ought to have done in the first place, suspend without pay. He’s still gonna get fired, but you gotta jump through the hoops and do it by the book.