In these civil rights cases, if the jury finds that his rights were violated, they must find for him. If they find that such violations did not cause him actual economic damage, they must award at least $1.
My bet is the jury thought his free speech rights were violated when CU started poking around his file after his comments. Then, when they found something that led to his firing, that was of his own doing, so he deserved no monetary award. So they gave him $1 for the poking around in his file after he exercised his free speech rights.
“...when they found something that led to his firing, that was of his own doing...”
If so, then the veredict sets the mood against reinstating him, right? Does it say somehow that his firing was actually rightful?