A federal judge in Tennessee on Friday rejected a federal prosecutors attempt to keep a bassist locked up in jail for months over a photo shoot for his anarcho-punk band , telling an assistant U.S. attorney that the federal government cant keep someone incarcerated before trial simply because that person exercised his First Amendment rights on Facebook .

It was a deeply embarrassing rebuke for Justice Department prosecutors who decided to charge 29-year-old Justin Coffman under a rarely used federal statute amid President Donald Trump s campaign against the loosely organized anti-fascism protest movement known as antifa.

Coffman, a member of the Jackson-based band The Gunpowder Plot, is facing charges under a federal gun law that makes it illegal for drug users to possess weapons. Coffman was a legal gun owner, but a small baggie of marijuana that law enforcement reportedly found in his home would make gun possession illegal. Federal prosecutors have previously used the charge as a way to lock up alleged white supremacists accused of discussing violent racist plots but whose conduct didnt offer any clear violation of federal law.