Manhattan ? A federal appeals court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by two former Kansas State University journalism students over a faculty member’s removal as the campus newspaper’s adviser.

Ron Johnson was removed as director of student publications and adviser to reporters and editors on the Kansas State Collegian in 2004. He and two student editors, Katie Lane and Sarah Rice, sued school leaders.

Johnson, who was assigned other duties and remains an assistant journalism professor, sought to be reinstated. The students argued his removal was a response to criticism of the newspaper’s coverage and affected their First Amendment rights. But District Judge Julie A. Robinson dismissed the case.

Lane and Rice appealed, but Johnson did not. On July 26, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declared the case moot because Lane and Rice had graduated from K-State.