The Supreme Court has waited 15 months to take a swing at what may be the premier case of its lackluster term — but at the last moment, the church-state dispute over a Lutheran church's playground may be slip-sliding away.

On the surface, the case is about just that: the unforgiving, pea gravel surface of the playground at Trinity Lutheran Child Learning Center in Columbia, Mo. Children have been scraping their knees and elbows there for years, and the church wants to replace it.