NEW YORK CITY, NY — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued an order on January 17 saying that two Village of Liberty police officers, Melvin Gorr and Steven D’Agata, are not liable for violating the First Amendment rights of Willian Barboza.

In 2012, Barboza was issued a traffic ticket while driving through Liberty. When submitting payment for the ticket, Barboza, who was 22 at the time, scrawled some obscene words on the ticket before mailing it back to the Town of Liberty Justice Court.

The court rejected the payment and ordered that Barboza personally appear in court. He made the appearance and was arrested for aggravated harassment on the grounds that the words he wrote on the ticket could have been seen as a threat to some of the women in the town.

The case was sent to the justice in the Town of Fallsburg, Ivan Kalter, who dismissed the charges. He said the words on the ticket, while intended to “annoy,” were protected by the First Amendment.

The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) then picked up the case, representing Barboza, and sued Sullivan County, the assistant district attorney that brought the charges and the two police officers. The court ruled that the county and the assistant district attorney had violated Barboza’s First Amendment rights, but the two officers had not. The federal court ruled the district attorney was a lawyer and should have known that Barboza’s arrest was a violation of his rights, but the two officers were merely following orders. Further, the assistant district attorney and a judge had signed off on the charge.

At the time of the arrest, there had been cases where the charge of aggravated harassment had been upheld and cases where it had not, but the appellate court disagreed with the lower court as to why the officers were not liable. The court wrote, “Accordingly, we conclude that the defendant police officers are entitled to qualified immunity, not because—as the district court ruled—the First Amendment right violated was clearly established but the officers’ conduct was nevertheless objectively reasonable, but rather because a First Amendment right to engage in the charged conduct in the circumstances of this case was not yet clearly established so that no reasonable officer could have thought (even if mistakenly) that Barboza could lawfully be arrested for aggravated harassment.”

In February 2016, the Sullivan County Legislature legislators agreed to pay $30,000 to Barboza, and another $45,000 to his attorneys to settle the matter.

Mariko Hirose, an NYCLU attorney, wrote at the time, “New Yorkers should not be afraid to protest or complain about a speeding ticket—or any other government action—because they might be dragged to jail for using a few harmless words. The First Amendment protects people’s right to express their opinions about the government, and our government is better for it.”