A North Carolina judge has dismissed charges against two students accused of disorderly conduct and defacing a public monument after placing Ku Klux Klan hoods on statues at a Confederate monument.

N.C. State students Enzo Niebuhr and Jody Anderson were arrested Easter Sunday during a protest at the North Carolina Women of the Confederacy monument in Raleigh.

News outlets report that a judge dismissed the charges Friday after a hearing in which the students’ lawyer argued that their actions were protected speech.

The officer who arrested them testified that the students used profanity and that placing hoods on the statues was like a hate crime.

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