The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals building in Richmond, Va. (Photo via Acroterion/Wikimedia) (CN) — A Fourth Circuit panel heard arguments Thursday over whether a former Air Force officer’s use of a racial slur toward a Black store clerk fell within the “fighting words” exception to free speech protection. Lieutenant Colonel Jules Bartow was convicted under Virginia’s abusive language statute for posing a series of rhetorical questions that included a racial slur to a sales associate at the Marine Corps Exchange store in Quantico. His counsel on Thursday pressed a three-judge-panel of the Richmond-based appeals court to overturn a federal judge’s denial of his motion for acquittal last year after a bench trial. The lower court judge held that Bartow’s speech was not protected under the First Amendment because he had used “fighting words.”