Overview

• U.S. Senior Judge Karen E. Schreier issued a temporary restraining order preventing the University of South Dakota from terminating tenured art professor Phillip Michael Hook.
• Hook had been placed on administrative leave after the South Dakota Board of Regents sent an intent-to-remove letter tied to his off-duty Facebook post.
• In the post, written after Charlie Kirk was shot at a Utah Valley University event, Hook called the activist a "hate-spreading Nazi" and later posted an apology.
• The court cited the short interval between the post and the removal notice, the letter’s focus on the post, and contacts from state politicians to the Board of Regents calling for Hook’s ouster.
• The order preserves Hook’s position while his First Amendment lawsuit proceeds and does not resolve the underlying constitutional claims.