Tinker V. Des Moines Independent Community Schools Case Study

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The United States was founded on the principle of free speech, and it was set forth in the Constitution that it was the government's job to protect rights like this. In times of war though, free speech has been limited by the government to protect the overall good of the country, and isolate dissenters that could possibly be a threat to the well-being of the country. In the case of Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, the Des Moines school district suspended several students for wearing black armbands in protest of the Vietnam War. The schools instituted a policy banning the wearing of armbands, saying that they were threatening and disrupting classrooms. When the students sued the school district, though, the case eventually …show more content…
While the school and the District Court concluded that the school was reasonable in its actions because they thought the armbands were disturbances, the Supreme Court believed that there was no evidence of this, and even still it would not be enough to suspend them. In the Supreme Court majority opinion, Justice Abe Fortas, says that "undifferentiated fear or apprehension of disturbance is not enough to overcome the right to freedom of expression." There are a lot of disturbances throughout the country and in the classroom, he says, but free speech and openness are the basis of the United States. Additionally, there is no proof that there was a desire by the students to create an atmosphere of discomfort in the school; rather, they just wanted to voice their opinions peacefully. The majority opinion also states that there were similar demonstrations by students in the same district, and these students did not get punished for them. Fortas says that students wore "buttons relating to national political campaigns, and some even wore the Iron Cross, traditionally a symbol of Nazism." Supporters of the ruling say that this is hypocritical for the school district, which clearly has an
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