The Tinker V. Des Moines Case

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The Tinker v. Des Moines case was a very important case in history. It changed a big part of school district rules. The Tinker’s were a family with two children who attended Des Moines Independent Community School District in the sixties. The Tinker’s had two kids, John F. Tinker and Mary Beth Tinker. One day the Tinker kids and Christopher Eckhardt, another Des Moines student, wore black armbands in a silent protest against the government’s policies in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Both Tinker children and Christopher Eckhardt were suspended for their protest. When the Tinker and Eckhardt tried to fight the suspensions the District Court said it was within the school’s power to suspend the children but the parents knew that wasn’t right. So, the Tinkers and Eckhardts moved their case to the Supreme Court.
The majority vote was that it was not constitutional for the school to suspend the students because the students have rights. The majority vote believed the school was violating the students first and fourteenth amendment. The first amendment is freedom of speech, whether verbal or nonverbal, cannot be taken away from students unless it is harming or disrupting other students. A silent protest of wearing a black armband …show more content…

Justice Black. Black starts by saying he believes in the first and fourteenth amendment but that they should be only expressed in appropriate times. Black believes that people, students nor teachers, should not use school as a place to exercise free speech unless it is appropriate. Black uses the Cox v. Louisiana case as an example that free speech and assembly “do not mean that everyone with opinions or beliefs to express may address a group at any public place and at any time. Black almost mentions that the armbands did distract and cause comments from other students. Black also believes that teachers are paid to teach a set curriculum because kids don’t know enough to make their own

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