At oral arguments, justices expressed both sympathy for Lozman and hesitance to issue a ruling that might hinder law enforcement. Their eventual ruling in Lozman's favor was very narrow, holding that the Mt. Healthy test was appropriate "on facts like these", based on the alleged "official municipal policy" of retaliation and the importance of the right to petition. A year later, the court considered the matter again in Nieves v. Bartlett, that time finding that probable cause generally bars a claim of retaliatory arrest.
