LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court will not take up a Lincoln businessman’s case against Nebraska banking regulators.

The country’s high court denied Bob Bennie Jr.’s petition on Tuesday.

Bennie filed the petition after the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year refused to reinstate his lawsuit, even though the judges said the regulators were wrong to target the financial adviser partly because of his criticism of President Barack Obama.

Bennie, a Lincoln financial adviser and tea party activist, called Obama a “communist” and an “evil man” in a 2010 interview with the Journal Star. Regulators cited those comments in emails to Bennie’s employer during their investigation into whether he had violated any regulations. The regulators ultimately took no action against him.