A Connecticut man has won his lawsuit against a shitty New York municipality that fined him for speeding, then arrested him because it didn’t like what he wrote on his ticket.

Michael Barboza was pissed off that the town of Liberty, N.Y., had dinged him for speeding, and he expressed his feelings by writing “FUCK YOUR SHITTY TOWN BITCHES” on the ticket, as well as crossing out “Liberty” and replacing it with “Tyranny.” Despite his assessment of the town’s shittiness, he paid the ticket.

But the shitty, ironically named town refused to take Barboza’s payment, calling him into court instead. After driving two hours to comply with the summons, he was arrested for aggravated harassment.

A judge dropped the charges a year later, not even bothering to cite a case in determining that “fuck your shitty town” is protected free speech.

Barboza, with the assistance of the good people at the New York Civil Liberties Union, sued Liberty and its assistant district attorney, Robert Zangla, for violating his First Amendment rights. That case was finally decided Thursday, in Barboza’s favor.

A federal judge found that Barboza’s writing, “though crude and offensive to some, did not convey an imminent threat and was made in the context of complaining about government activity,” and thus didn’t qualify as harassment under the relevant statute.

“The words here are not inherently likely to provoke violent reaction, they were not directed at anyone in particular, and could not be interpreted as threatening any particular action,” Seibel said.

“I hope that by standing up for myself, other Americans will not be treated like criminals for complaining about their government with a few harmless words.”

“Bitches,” he added, in his head, nodding in satisfaction.

[Photo via New York Civil Liberties Union]