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 You Be the Judge > Tinker v. Des Moines
Case Facts Mary Beth Tinker, 13, was opposed to the Vietnam War. To express her views she and other students decided they would wear black armbands with the peace sign to protest the war. The school board heard about the planned protest and passed a policy banning the armbands. On December 16, 1965 Mary Beth, her brother John, and five other students wore the armbands to their high school in Des Moines, Iowa. The students were suspended. John and Mary Beth Tinker sued the school district. The Tinkers argued that the school used its authority to deprive students of their right to freedom of expression. School officials argued that the armbands may have led to school disturbances and that they had a responsibility to maintain a safe and orderly environment. What happened? The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in favor of the Tinkers. Their ruling supported students’ right to free expression in public schools. It included symbolic actions—such as wearing armbands—as a form of protected speech. Speaking for seven of the justices, Justice Abe Fortas wrote this in the majority opinion: “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 classroom is peculiarly the ‘marketplace of ideas’…. Students in school as well as out of school are ‘persons’ under our Constitution. They are possessed of fundamental rights which the State must respect…A student’s rights do not embrace merely the classroom hours. When he is in the cafeteria, or on the playing field, or on the campus during the authorized hours, he may express his opinions, even on controversial subjects like the conflict in Vietnam, if he does so without…colliding with the rights of others. These petitioners…neither interrupted school activities nor sought to intrude in the school affairs or the lives of others….Under the circumstances, our Constitution does not permit officials of the State to deny their form of expression.” The two judges in the minority opinion were Hugo Black and John Marshall Harlan. Black wrote: “It is a myth to say that any person has a constitutional right to say what he pleases, where he pleases, and when he pleases….Nor are public school students sent to the schools at public expense to broadcast political or any other views to educate and inform the public. The original idea of schools…was that children had not yet reached the point of experience and wisdom which enabled them to teach all of their elders…It may be that the Nation has outworn the old-fashioned slogan that ‘children are to be seen and not heard,’ but one may, I hope, be permitted to harbor the thought that taxpayers send children to school on the premise that at their age they need to learn, not teach.” How the Supreme Court Justices Voted Chief Justice Earl Warren Yes Abe Fortas Yes Potter Stewart Yes Byron R. White Yes Thurgood Marshall Yes William Brennan, Jr. Yes William O. Douglas Yes John Marshall Harlan No Hugo Black No What does this mean for us today? The Supreme Court decision in Tinker v. Des Moines is still used as the standard in almost all student free speech cases that come before courts and in policymaking decisions by school districts. The decision has been used to address issues such as student dress codes, student uniforms, student newspaper publishing, and student speech on the Internet. Back to You Be the Judge |
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