On the evening of August 10, 2005, a Delaware state trooper kicked several young women out of a Barnes & Noble bookstore where then-Senator Rick Santorum was about to do a book signing. The trooper arrested two of the women, and threatened others with arrest.

With the help of the ACLU affiliates of Delaware and Pennsylvania, four of the women sued the trooper and two Santorum campaign aides.

On June 27, the ACLU affiliates announced that a settlement has been reached.

“Under the settlement, the Delaware State Police will adopt a policy and training program for its officers on the free speech rights of protesters and pay $15,000 to the plaintiffs in legal fees,” says a press release from the state ACLU affiliates. The trooper agreed to write a letter to the plaintiffs, as did the Santorum aides. The aides also agreed to pay $2,500 in damages to the plaintiffs.

Stacey Galperin, one of the arrested women, was the lead plaintiff in the case.

“It was totally unacceptable that we were led out of the bookstore like criminals just because we wanted to have a conversation with the Senator,” she said in the press release. “We hope that the new policy the police adopted will encourage others to express their views, even when those ideas aren’t popular.”