If you’ve ever been tempted to make a rude gesture at a police officer, you can rest assured that the U.S. Constitution protects your right to do so, a federal appeals court says, NPR reports. Debra Cruise-Gulyas was pulled over in 2017 for speeding in Michigan. The officer showed leniency, writing her up for a lesser violation known as a “non-moving violation.” As she drove away, “she made an all-too-familiar gesture at Minard with her hand and without four of her fingers showing,” said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Officer Matthew Minard was not amused. He pulled her over again, and rewrote the ticket for speeding. Cruise-Gulyas sued, arguing she had a First Amendment right to wiggle whatever finger she wanted at the police. “Fits of rudeness or lack of gratitude may violate the Golden Rule,” wrote Judge Jeffrey Sutton this week. “But that doesn’t make them illegal or for that matter punishable.” Once the first stop ended, Minard needed a legitimate reason to pull the driver over again. Detaining her without one constituted an “unreasonable seizure” in violation of the Fourth Amendment, the court said. “Cruise-Gulyas did not break any law that would justify the second stop and at most was exercising her free speech rights,” the court wrote, adding that, “Any reasonable officer would know that a citizen who raises her middle finger engages in speech protected by the First Amendment,” Sutton wrote.