Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District case brief

Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District case brief summary

393 U.S. 503 (1969)

CASE SYNOPSIS

On writ of certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, petitioner high school students challenged the judgment affirming the district court's dismissal of their 42 U.S.C.S. § 1983 civil rights action, upholding the constitutionality of respondent school officials' suspension of petitioners for wearing black armbands to school in protest of the Vietnam War.

CASE FACTS
Respondent school officials suspended petitioner students from public high school because they wore black armbands to school in protest of the Vietnam War. Petitioners sued respondents under 42 U.S.C.S. § 1983. The trial court dismissed the complaint, upholding the constitutionality of respondents' action on the ground that it was reasonable in order to prevent the disturbance of school discipline. The circuit court affirmed.

DISCUSSION

• The Supreme Court reversed because the wearing of armbands was entirely divorced from actually or potentially disruptive conduct by those that participated in it. 
• Petitioners' conduct was closely akin to pure speech which was entitled to comprehensive protection under the First Amendment, absent facts that might reasonably have led school officials to forecast substantial disruption of or material interference with school activities.

CONCLUSION

The Court reversed the dismissal of the high school students' civil rights complaint against school officials.