RULE OF LAW -- Part V: Tinker vs. Des Moines School District (1969)

5. Rule of law -- a concise summary of the main precedent established.

To summarize the entire case, three students in the Des Moines School district decided to wear black arm bands in protest against the Vietnam War. Upon hearing this news, the teachers and principals of the Des Moines School district made an assumption that this was clearly an act of rebellion and that students were going to create problems by wearing these. In hearing so, the school district decided that students were to get suspended if they showed up wearing these black armbands.

Mary Beth Tinker, John Tinker, and one of their childhood friends decided to wear the black armbands anyways. They got suspended and were not allowed to come back on school property unless they showed up without these arm bands. Their father sued and took this to the Supreme Court. The main questions asked were, “does a prohibition against the wearing of armbands in public school, as a form of symbolic protest, violate the First Amendment's freedom of speech protections” (oyez.org)? In a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court decided that the students did have a right to wear the black arm bands since they weren’t disruptive or caused harm to others while in school.

Works Cited:
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/comm/free_speech/tinker.html
http://www.oyez.org/cases/1960-1969/1968/1968_21/