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Symposium: The Civil Rights Roots Of Tinker's Disruption Tests, Kristi L. Bowman
Symposium: The Civil Rights Roots Of Tinker's Disruption Tests, Kristi L. Bowman
American University Law Review
This past spring marked the fortieth anniversary of Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, the landmark student speech case in which the Supreme Court held that three students were protected by the First Amendment when they wore black armbands in their Des Moines, Iowa public schools to protest the Vietnam War. Looking at Supreme Court precedent alone, it would seem as though the Tinker tests were created out of whole cloth: the substantial or material disruption, reasonable anticipation of such disruption, and rights of others tests did not have much of a basis in earlier Supreme Court decisions. …
Symposium: Tinker's Midlife Crisis: Tattered And Transgressed But Still Standing, Clay Calvert
Symposium: Tinker's Midlife Crisis: Tattered And Transgressed But Still Standing, Clay Calvert
American University Law Review
This article examines the erosion of the strength of the Supreme Court’s 1969 opinion in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District. Indicators of decline range from Justice Thomas’ stunning call in Morse v. Frederick for overruling Tinker to recent lower-court opinions using Tinker to censor off-campus expression posted on the Internet. The article explores possible reasons for the decline and abuse of Tinker and it makes suggestions for its reinvigoration. Part I highlights and analyzes other indicators of the erosion, decline, and abuse of Tinker. Part II then explores some possible reasons and explanations for the midlife crisis …
Symposium: Tinker At Forty: Defending The Right Of High School Students To Wear Controversial Religious And Pro-Life Clothing, Jay Alan Sekulow, Erik M. Zimmerman
Symposium: Tinker At Forty: Defending The Right Of High School Students To Wear Controversial Religious And Pro-Life Clothing, Jay Alan Sekulow, Erik M. Zimmerman
American University Law Review
This Article argues for broad First Amendment protection for “controversial” religious and pro-life student expression. The vast majority of religious and pro-life clothing is no more likely to create an actual disturbance that substantially disrupts school functions than a peace armband worn during Vietnam, the student expression upheld in the seminal case of Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District. Section I of this Article discusses several Supreme Court student speech cases with an emphasis on their applicability to situations involving high school students who wear “controversial” religious and pro-life clothing. This section argues that Tinker’s substantial disruption test—not …
Symposium: Shrinking Tinker: Students Are Persons Under Our Constitution - Except When They Aren't , Frank D. Lomonte
Symposium: Shrinking Tinker: Students Are Persons Under Our Constitution - Except When They Aren't , Frank D. Lomonte
American University Law Review
The central proposition of this Article is that the school/student relationship is a distinctive one, and that student speakers on school property stand in a fundamentally different posture than do pamphleteers on the public sidewalk. This unique relationship has been recognized by the courts, but only selectively, where the uniqueness works to the disadvantage of the speaker. It is time that courts acknowledge that, because students are “captive” in school for the best hours of their day, and because students have a legally enforceable right to be on school grounds for purposes that expressly include the exchange of ideas, student …
Symposium: Oiling The Schoolhouse Gate: After Forty Years Of Tinkering With Teachers' First Amendment Rights, Time For A New Beginning , Alexander Wohl
Symposium: Oiling The Schoolhouse Gate: After Forty Years Of Tinkering With Teachers' First Amendment Rights, Time For A New Beginning , Alexander Wohl
American University Law Review
This Article will examine how (and how far) we have fallen from the legal precedent and educational principles behind Tinker, specifically the increasingly remote standards courts have used to chip away (and sometimes sledgehammer) the speech rights of teachers. To this end, the Article will consider some of the unique and fundamental characteristics associated with a profession that has at its core the mission of encouraging speech, raising questions, and teaching the ability to think—in short, “expressive activities.” It will also look at how the increasingly restrictive standards do not reflect fully the challenges posed by the advent of new …
Symposium: Reflections On Tinker, Tinker Turns 40: Freedom Of Expression At School And Its Meaning For American Democracy - April 16, 2009 - Symposium: Foreword , Mary Beth Tinker
Symposium: Reflections On Tinker, Tinker Turns 40: Freedom Of Expression At School And Its Meaning For American Democracy - April 16, 2009 - Symposium: Foreword , Mary Beth Tinker
American University Law Review
Mary Beth Tinker recounts her upbringing and her family’s involvement in important issues of their day. Tinker discusses how her family’s commitment to social justice was shaped by her parents religious values, and how this shaped their commitments to civil rights, ultimately leading to their protesting ongoing injustices. In particular, Tinker discusses how she, her siblings, and friends wore black armbands calling for a Christmas Truce in the Vietnam War and how the case that went before the Supreme Court was one of a series of events in her family’s journey for equality.
Symposium: No Enclaves Of Totalitarianism: The Triumph And Unrealized Promise Of The Tinker Decision , Jamin B. Raskin
Symposium: No Enclaves Of Totalitarianism: The Triumph And Unrealized Promise Of The Tinker Decision , Jamin B. Raskin
American University Law Review
The Supreme Court's decision in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District forty years ago did for the ideal of expressive freedom in America's public schools what Brown v. Board of Education did for the ideal of racial equality. It made a core value of the Bill of Rights spring to life for young people facing authoritarian treatment at the hands of adult officials running their school systems. By privileging the right of students to engage in passionate political communication over the school's interest in maintaining discipline or the community’s interest in maintaining pro-war consensus, the Tinker decision was …