A federal judge has ruled that a lawsuit brought by UC Berkeley activists who claim the they were unconstitutionally targeted for arrest in a 2009 campus protest can go forward.

Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler says the students have made a “plausible” case that the university’s police chief and vice chancellor for student affairs violated their First Amendment rights during the Wheeler Hall occupation, in which sixty-six peaceful demonstrators were arrested, cuffed, and transported two counties away for booking.

This isn’t a full victory for the students, just permission for the lawsuit to go forward — technically, a denial of the defendants’ motion to dismiss the suit. But it’s still a major vindication of the activist perspective on an event that many of us have long seen as an appalling violation of students’ rights.