Required caseStudent Speech

Tinker v. Des Moines

1969·Unit 4: American Political Ideologies and Beliefs

Full name: Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969)

Students may engage in symbolic speech at school unless it causes a substantial disruption.

Practice the comparison FRQRead the brief
Decided
1969
Clause at issue
First Amendment: Freedom of Speech
Course unit
Unit 4
Case number
8 of 14

Case brief

The three pieces every AP answer about this case should get right.

  1. 1

    The facts

    Students wore black armbands to protest the Vietnam War and were suspended after school officials banned the protest.

  2. 2

    The constitutional question

    Does the First Amendment protect symbolic student speech in public schools?

  3. 3

    The holding

    The Court ruled for the students and protected the armband protest.

Why it matters

  • Students do not shed constitutional speech rights at the schoolhouse gate.
  • Schools may restrict speech only when it materially and substantially disrupts school operations.
  • Mere fear of disturbance is not enough to justify censorship of political expression.

Check yourself

Three questions on Tinker v. Des Moines: the holding, a common mix-up, and how it differs from another required case.

Question 1 of 3

In Tinker v. Des Moines (1969), students were suspended for wearing black armbands to school to protest the Vietnam War. The Supreme Court ruled that

SCOTUS comparison FRQ

Can you connect Tinker v. Des Moines to a case you’ve never seen?

The exam hands you an unfamiliar case and asks how it relates to a required one. Practice that here: name the shared principle, state the holding, and explain the connection.

Start the comparison

You’ll compare it with

Morse v. Frederick (2007)

Three parts

  1. A. Identify the shared principle
  2. B. Describe the required case
  3. C. Explain the connection

Frequently asked questions

Why were the armbands treated as speech?

The students wore them to protest the Vietnam War, and the school suspended them under a rule aimed at that protest. The Court analyzed the armbands as expression, because the point of wearing them was the message, not the clothing.

When is a school still allowed to stop the expression?

When it can show a material and substantial disruption of class or school order. Discomfort, disagreement, or a general fear of controversy does not meet that bar. The Des Moines schools had not shown the armbands would interfere with the school day.

Where does Tinker sit next to Schenck?

Schenck let the government punish anti-draft leaflets under a clear-and-present-danger standard. Tinker stopped a school from punishing an antiwar protest without evidence of real disruption. If the new case restricts speech, Schenck is the closer required case. If it protects student expression, Tinker is.

What three pieces does a comparison FRQ expect?

Tinker is required. Be able to give the armband protest, the First Amendment free-speech protection, and the holding that student expression stays protected unless it substantially disrupts school.

The other required cases