Giving the middle finger to police, while rude and crude, is indeed constitutionally protected free speech, a federal appeals court reaffirmed this week.

In a judgment from the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, three judges unanimously said that Debra Cruise-Gulyas was well within her first amendment rights when she flipped the bird at Michigan police officer Matthew Minard during a June 2017 traffic stop.

“Fits of rudeness or lack of gratitude may violate the Golden Rule,” Judge Jeffrey Sutton wrote in the Wednesday ruling. “But that doesn’t make them illegal or for that matter punishable or for that matter grounds for a seizure.”