Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969)

dissent

1) First Amendment does not give people the right to express any opinion at any time. 2) The armbands, he argued, did cause a disturbance, by taking students' minds of their classwork and diverting them to "the highly emotional subject of the Vietnam War."

Argument for Des Moines

1) Free speech is not an absolute right 2) Students in academic classes could have been distracted from their lessons by the armbands. 3) Students in academic classes could have been distracted from their lessons by the armbands because the Vietnam War is a controversial issue which would lead to kids voicing opinions or getting bullied. 4) The school did not ban all types of expressions, just the armbands. They were banned because of their inflammatory nature and potential for significant disruption

Arguments for Tinker

1) They possess fundamental rights that all levels of government must respect. 2) The 14th Amendment protects people from state infringement of their First Amendment rights to free speech. 3) Wearing the armbands was a form of speech and speech was not disruptive 4) The students wearing the armbands did not infringe any other student's rights 5) Schools are meant to act as an environment for discourse and a forum for different ideas

Constitutional Amendment and Supreme Court Precedents

1) U.S. Constitution, Amendment I 2) West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943)

Facts

1) five students, ages 13-16, decided to show opposition to the Vietnam War. The students planned to wear two-inch-wide black armbands to school for two weeks 2) The school district found out about the students' plan and preemptively announced a policy that any student who wore a black armband, or refused to take it off, would be suspended from school after the student's parents were called. 3) Mary Beth Tinker, an eighth-grader, and John Tinker and Christopher Eckardt wore the armbands and all three of them were sent home 4) parents filed suit against the school district for violating the students' First Amendment right to free speech. 5) The Tinkers asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review that decision, and the Court agreed to hear the case.

West Virginia State Board v. Barnette

1943 1)All teachers and pupils were required to salute the flag. If they did not, they could be charged with "insubordination" and punished 2) Jehovah's Witnesses and had a religious objection to saluting the flag sued the state board of education 3) The Court said a flag salute was a form of speech, because it was a way to communicate ideas. 4) The Supreme Court ruled that this mandatory salute was unconstitutional violated the establishment clause.

Issue

Does a prohibition against the wearing of armbands in public school, as a form of symbolic speech, violate the students' freedom of speech protections guaranteed by the First Amendment?

Decision

Supreme Court ruled in favor of Tinker 7-2 1)Justices said that students retain their constitutional right to freedom of speech while in public schools. They said that wearing the armbands was a form of speech 2) In this case, though, there was not evidence that the armbands would substantially interfere with the educational process or with other students' rights.