Tinker v. Des Moines
Tinker v. Des Moines: The Background
The Tinker v. Des Moines court case is one of the most groundbreaking trials in the history of the United States. The case involves 3 minors—John Tinker, Mary Beth Tinker and Christopher Eckhart—who were each suspended from their schools for wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War. The Tinker v. Des Moines case refers to the Supreme Court hearing—the case was so unique that it went through a number of courts to get right.
Circuit Courts and the Court of Appeals in the state of Iowa both ruled that black armbands, which represented bad feelings towards the Vietnam War, was inappropriate attire for school. Because of this ruling and because the kids were each suspended from school, they appealed and brought their matter to a higher court. Ultimately, the Tinker v. Des Moines case reached the highest court in the United States—the Supreme Court.
The students kept appealing the rulings because they felt they were entitled to expressing themselves as American citizens. The students believed the black armbands were protected under the 1st Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guarantees the right of free speech and expression.
Tinker v. Des Moines: The Case Profile
Tinker v. Des Moines began on November 12th of 1968. The Tinkers and Christopher Eckhart filed the following charges against the state of Iowa: The Tinkers stated that their suspension resulted out of legal expressions. They believed they were suspended for simply stating their opinions on the war. They believed this action taken by the school and the stated was a direct violation of their 1st and 14th Amendment rights, which protected free speech and free expression. Tinker v. Des Moines was decided by the United States Supreme Court on February 24th of 1969.
Tinker v. Des Moines: The Verdict
The United States Supreme Court in Tinker v. Des Moines ruled in favor of the Tinkers and Christopher Eckhart, claiming that the protest undertaken by the students did not intend to spark violence, destruction, damage or criminal activity. Because their protest was peaceful in nature, their expressions and speech were protected by the 1st Amendment to the United States Constitution. The students were thus allowed to wear their black armbands in protest of the Vietnam War.
The Verdict reached by the court in Tinker v. Des Moines created a law that gave power to school systems. Known as the tinker test, the ruling offered in Tinker v. Des Moines, allowed individual schools to prohibit students from protesting if the protest has the chance to influence a disruptive response.
Tinker v. Des Moines (1969)
Summary
This month we spotlight the 1969 landmark case of Tinker v. Des Moines, which affirmed the First Amendment rights of students in school. The Court held that a school district violated students’ free speech rights when it singled out a form of symbolic speech – black armbands worn in protest of the Vietnam War – for prohibition, without proving the armbands would cause substantial disruption in class.
Activity
The December morning air was chilly as students John and Mary Beth Tinker were getting ready for school. As they got dressed, they tied black armbands around their sleeves. It was 1965, and John and Mary Beth were opposed to American involvement in the Vietnam War. They had decided to wear the armbands to school as a symbolic protest. The school district, having learned of their plan to wear the armbands, had adopted a new policy to suspend students who came to school wearing them. John and Mary Beth knew about the policy but they kept their armbands on as they walked into their classrooms in their Des Moines, Iowa public schools. It was not long before school officials asked John and Mary Beth to remove their armbands, but they both refused and were suspended.
The school district maintained that it had banned armbands because of their potential to distract students and disrupt class. However, other forms of potentially controversial speech had been permitted in school, including campaign buttons.
The Court had to consider two questions: were the armbands a form of symbolic speech protected by the First Amendment? And if so, did the school district have the power to restrict that speech in the interest of maintaining order in the school? In a 7-2 decision, the Court found that the armbands were basically “pure speech” and that the school’s action was unconstitutional. In a famous phrase, Justice Fortas wrote, “ It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate . . ..”
The Court found that the school had not demonstrated that the armbands caused “a material and substantial interference with schoolwork or discipline ” and, rather, had acted merely to avoid the “discomfort and unpleasantness that always accompany an unpopular viewpoint.” The Court noted that the school district had not banned all political symbols, but had instead “singled out” the armbands for prohibition. In other words, the limiting of speech was not content-neutral – a test the Supreme Court uses when deciding some First Amendment cases.
The Tinker case remains a landmark in upholding the rights of students in schools to express their views in a peaceful and orderly way.
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
393 U.S. 503
Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District
No. 21 Argued: November 12, 1968 --- Decided: February 24, 1969
MR. JUSTICE WHITE, concurring.
While I join the Court's opinion, I deem it appropriate to note, first, that the Court continues to recognize a distinction between communicating by words and communicating by acts or conduct which sufficiently impinges on some valid state interest; and, second, that I do not subscribe to everything the Court of Appeals said about free speech in its opinion in Burnside v. Byars, 363 F.2d 744, 748 (C.A. 5th Cir.1966), a case relied upon by the Court in the matter now before us.