It began with a speeding ticket given in upstate New York to a man whose response was, to put it mildly, less than polite. He sent back a payment form with a scribbled five-word expression of vulgarity, and crossed out the town’s name.

Instead of Liberty, the man wrote “Tyranny.”

Local authorities were not amused. They ordered the man, Willian M. Barboza, to return to Town Court, a long drive from his home in Connecticut. Mr. Barboza was summarily lectured by a judge, arrested and held for several hours on charges of aggravated harassment.

In most small-town traffic cases, justice is dispensed quietly, fines are paid and unhappy drivers go on with their lives. This case did not go that way.

Mr. Barboza decided to sue the Village of Liberty, whose police officers had arrested him. Last week, a federal judge, Cathy Seibel, in White Plains, ruled that his First Amendment rights had been violated, and allowed his lawsuit to proceed.