Tinker v. Des Moines School Dist., 393 U.S. 503 (1969)

"Students and teachers do not shed their constitutional
rights to freedom of expression at the schoolhouse gates."

Christopher Eckhardt & parents at 1965 school-board meeting

Des Moines, Iowa, 1965. 13-year-old Junior High student Mary Beth Tinker, her 15-year-old brother, John, and their 15-year-old friend, Christopher Eckhardt protest the Vietnam war, by wearing black armbands to school. The principal is not pleased. "Schools are no place for demonstrations," he says and orders the armbands removed. The students refuse; they're suspended.

The teenagers go to court. In 1969, the Supreme Court rules that their armbands are symbolic speech, protected by the First Amendment. "Schools," writes Justice Abe Fortas, "may not be enclaves of totalitarianism. Students and teachers do notshed their constitutional rights to freedom of expression at the schoolhouse gates."

For more...

An Online Conversation with the Tinker v. Des Moines Plaintiffs

FreedomForum: Education for Freedom - Lesson Plans for Teaching the First Amendment

AMENDMENT 1 Freedom of Religion, Speech, and Assembly

Passed by Congress September 25, 1789. Ratified December 15, 1791.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. [^].

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