During Supreme Court oral hearings on Tuesday, a line was drawn between a First Amendment case against a college and Taylor Swift's high-profile sexual assault case, in which she sought (and won) $1 in damages.
Chike Uzuegbunam argued that Georgia Gwinnett College, a public college in Lawrenceville, Ga., violated his First Amendment rights after being ordered multiple times to stop openly discussing his Christian faith on school grounds. Uzuegbunam's pursuit of nominal damages -- meaning a very small amount if he were to win his case -- struck a chord with Justice Elena Kagan, who remembered Swift's 2017 jury verdict after the pop superstar sued Denver radio DJ David Mueller for groping her backside during a meet-and-greet photo shoot before a concert in 2013.
According to a New York Times play-by-play, the judge invoked Swift's sexual assault case to support the student's argument by describing it as "the most famous nominal damages case I know of in recent times." Kagan then reflected on Swift's symbolic pursuit of $1, after Mueller sued Swift for defamation in 2015 and she successfully countersued him for assault and battery.