The state’s high court says Maui police did not have sufficient reason to arrest a man for taking cellphone video of officers at a traffic enforcement checkpoint.

The case involves the 2012 arrest of Tommy A. Russo for obstructing a government operation, resisting arrest and harassment. The Maui prosecutor later charged Russo with failing or refusing to comply with a lawful order of a police officer, a petty misdemeanor, and disorderly conduct, a violation.

A state judge on Maui determined in 2014 that the failure-to-comply charge did not fit what Russo was accused of doing because Russo was not operating a vehicle at the time, that the state lacked probable cause for the disorderly conduct charge, and dismissed both. The state appealed only the dismissal of the refusing-to-comply dismissal.

In an opinion handed down in December, the Hawaii Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s dismissal of the failure to comply, not for the reason the Maui judge stated, but because the state lacked of probable cause or sufficient reason for the charge.

Russo, the publisher of Maui Time weekly, argued that photographing or filming police activity in a public place is a protected right under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. He said he was engaged in investigative journalism when police arrested him. The Supreme Court doesn’t offer an opinion on whether or not the state infringed on Russo’s constitutional right because the justices had decided the case on other grounds.