A few months ago, Georgia Supreme Court Justice Harold Melton elicited chuckles by asking a Hall County solicitor—defending the disorderly conduct arrest of a man who raised the middle finger to a church pastor—whether “you always get one free bird, don't you?”

In an opinion released Monday, Melton and his fellow justices ruled that yes, one does get to flip a “free bird”—so long as that gesture, rude though it may be, is not accompanied by “tumultuous” behavior sufficient to place its target in fear of bodily harm.

The ruling marks a victory for David Justin Freeman, who represented himself in arguments before the high court in May. But the justices stopped short of declaring the state's disorderly conduct statute unconstitutionally vague and overbroad as Freeman had argued.