LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A federal judge has found in favor of the city of Lincoln in a civil rights lawsuit filed by a man arrested and convicted of trespassing for handing out religious leaflets outside an arena on public land.

U.S. District Judge Laurie Smith Camp on Thursday granted the city’s request for summary judgment, ending Larry Ball’s lawsuit.

The 78-year-old Ball was ticketed last year, found guilty of two misdemeanor trespassing counts and fined $100 plus court costs. Ball has maintained that the area in front of the arena entrance where he was handing out religious pamphlets is a public sidewalk and that the city violated his free speech rights.

But the city says the area is quasi-public because it’s contracted to private tenants.