NORTH HAVERHILL, N.H. (AP) – A judge has dismissed a defamation lawsuit by a New Hampshire antiques shop owner who said she was run out of business for displaying an old flour sack with a swastika symbol.

Nicole Guida closed her shop in Littleton, New Hampshire, last year. She alleged she got poor reviews and declining sales after Katherine Ferrier took to social media to denounce her display of a 1912 pre-Nazi-era flour sack from the Lucky Flour company that bore the symbol.

The lawsuit said Ferrier called Guida a racist and anti-Semite. Ferrier said her comments are protected by the U.S. and New Hampshire constitutions.

The swastika is an ancient religious icon used in the Indian subcontinent, East Asia and Southeast Asia, where it has been and remains a sacred symbol of spiritual principles in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. In the Western world and in Native-American culture, it was historically a symbol of auspiciousness and good luck, but in the 1930s, the Nazi party adopted the swastika as an emblem of Aryan race identity and, as a result, it has become stigmatized in the West for its association with racism, hatred and mass murder.

The Caledonian Record reports Guida’s attorney withdrew from the case in December, citing unspecified ethical reasons. Guida didn’t meet a Jan. 2 deadline to replace him.

Guida didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment Wednesday.

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Information from: The Caledonian-Record, http://www.caledonianrecord.com

Auction Central News International contributed to this report.

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