A Butler County judge has agreed that a group of Middlesex Township residents who fought a township zoning amendment that would allow shale gas drilling in most of the township cannot be sued for exercising their First Amendment rights.

Judge Michael Yeager dismissed a case brought by a group of shale gas leaseholders who claimed that those who appealed the Middlesex zoning amendment and the development of the Geyer wells near the Mars School District did so in an attempt to “harass, delay and interfere with the plaintiffs’ oil and gas contracts.”

Yeager’s opinion on Thursday said the defendants are insulated from liability in their protest of the zoning and the wells because of their First Amendment right to free speech and right to “petition the government for redress of grievances.”

The case was originally filed in county court where Judge Marilyn Horan dismissed it on its lack of specificity regarding the actions allegedly taken by the defendants. Horan gave the plaintiffs the opportunity to refile the case with more detail, which they did.

Yeager on May 19 heard arguments from both sides. Richard Sandow, the leaseholders’ attorney, argued that the defendants actions were a sham meant to prevent his clients from benefiting from their properties.

Withold Walczak, an American Civil Liberties attorney who got involved in the case because he feels the suit was an attempt to silence the defendants, argued before Yeager that the suit was an infringement on his clients’ constitutional rights.