A Chicago-based lawyer can’t pursue libel claims against people who posted negative online reviews on his firm’s social media pages in response to a comment he made about Ukrainians, a federal appeals court ruled Jan. 28.

The case stemmed from a Facebook comment lawyer David Freydin made in 2017 in which he wrote “Did Trump put Ukraine on the travel ban list?! We just cannot find a cleaning lady!” among other comments that were viewed as disparaging Ukrainians. People then went on his firm’s Yelp, Google and Facebook pages and left critical, one-star reviews, including one calling Freydin an “embarrassment and a disgrace to the US judicial system.”