Sometimes a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court seems so unusual that it cries out for some reasonable explanation as to why the court took the case in the first place, what constitutional principle is at stake that the court sought to vindicate, and whether there may have lurked a dramatic backstory to explain the decision. The court's ruling on March 7th in Uzuegbunam v. Preszewski is that kind of a case, turning a modest college free speech dispute into a pedantic debate over whether the federal judiciary should be forced to decide a lawsuit involving nominal damages of one dollar.