LAS VEGAS — The knowing nods come as soon as the name John Higgins is mentioned to veteran college basketball officials. It could happen to any of us, they say, the way things are going.

Higgins is one of the top referees in the sport. But it was during a taut N.C.A.A. tournament matchup in 2017 that he trended on Twitter and quickly became the target of harassment by frustrated Kentucky fans certain that Higgins was the reason that the Wildcats had lost a quarterfinal game against North Carolina.

Higgins and his family received death threats, and his roofing-and-siding business received thousands of harassing phone calls (mostly from Kentucky area codes) and an onslaught of negative reviews, according to a lawsuit that Higgins later filed against a radio station he accused of fanning the discord.

“While a basketball game is only played between two teams, there are three major groups of players at each game: the winning team, the losing team, and, increasingly visible with instant-replay on every television broadcast, the referees,” reads the lawsuit, which was dismissed in United States District Court on Wednesday, nearly 18 months after it was filed. (“Speech on matters of public concern in a public place is entitled to special First Amendment protection,” the judge wrote.)