U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will not have to sit for a deposition in the defamation case between former department administrator Shirley Sherrod and the late blogger Andrew Breitbart, a federal appeals court in Washington ruled on Thursday.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit overturned a trial judge who denied the government’s efforts to quash subpoenas for Vilsack’s deposition testimony.