LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A federal appeals court won’t reinstate a Nebraska businessman’s lawsuit against state banking regulators, but the judges said the regulators were wrong to target the financial adviser partly because of his criticism of President Barack Obama.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that there wasn’t enough evidence to overturn an earlier decision that Bob Bennie Jr.’s rights weren’t violated.

Bennie, a Lincoln financial adviser and tea party activist, called Obama a “communist” and an “evil man” in a 2010 interview with the Lincoln Journal Star. Regulators cited those comments in emails to Bennie’s employer about his conduct.

The appeals court says it was “wholly inappropriate” for regulators to allow their views of Bennie’s political comments to influence how they treated him.