A lawyer who formerly worked for Tennessee's legal ethics body told an appeals court Wednesday that his political tweets—cited by attorney discipline officials as showing anti-Muslim bias and partial grounds for his termination—were protected by the First Amendment guarantee of free speech.

During the lead-up to the 2016 election Gerald Morgan fired off a number of tweets such as "[Former President Donald] Trump was 'talking about the #1 issue of our time – stopping Muslims. Everybody better wake up!'" and "Siding with Obama in a fight involving Muslims means you're on the wrong side."