Students' First Amendment Rights

The Newseum hosted a discussion on students' First Amendment rights. Mary Beth Tinker was one of the featured speakers and talked to students about the importance of speaking out peacefully for a cause. She was the plaintiff in the landmark 1969 Supreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District in which the Court ruled that students in public schools do have speech protections under the Constitution. The ruling also established the so-called Tinker test, which courts use to determine whether disciplinary action by a school violates a student’s First Amendment rights. Ms. Tinker, who was then only 13 years old, joined other students in wearing a black armband to school in protest of the Vietnam War. She refused to remove it and was suspended. She challenged her school suspension arguing it violated her right to freedom of speech and expression. While she lost in the lower courts, she prevailed before the Supreme Court. close