Beth And John Tinker's Case Summary: Black Armbands In Schools

Des Moines ruling based off of the Court of Appeals reliance on the case in ruling on Bethel v. Fraser. Essentially Tinker v. Des Moines hinges on whether the school acted in accordance to their authority to maintain a proper environment for students, by impeding Tinker’s Right to Freedom of Speech. The Court found that wearing a black armband in peaceful protest is protected under Freedom of Speech, because there was no disruption caused in the action, it was unnecessary for the school to react in the manner that it did. Justice Burger went on to suggest that the Court of Appeals missed the mark in comparing the two cases. Consequently, there is a distinction between the political message of the black armband Tinker wore, and the sexual content of Fraser’s speech when deciding the School’s ability to

The tinkers took it to the Supreme court and the majority vote wat that it was unconstitutional for the school to

The Court аdmitted that the precedent to which it cited involved discriminаtion between whites and blacks rаther thаn other rаces. However, the Court found no аppreciable difference here—"the decision is within the discretion of the state in regulating its public schools, and does not conflict with the Fourteenth Аmendment."

This case Tinker v. Des Moines Schools was a very interesting case argued in 1968. A lawsuit was filed against the school after three students, Two of which in high school and one in middle school were suspended from school. The school suspended the students for wearing black armbands protesting the Vietnam war. Two other students wore armbands, but were in elementary school and weren't suspended. The students were fifteen year old John Tinker, sixteen year old Christopher Eckhardt, and thirteen year old Mary Beth Tinker.

The Tinker versus Des Moines Independent school court case was a case that started in a local school in Iowa. Mary Beth Tinker was a thirteen year old at Des Moines Independent school. She and a small group of students were unsettled about the Vietnam war. In an attempt to speak out against the war and voice their opinions about it the students wore black armbands to school. It was a peaceful, harmless, and innocent protest. However it opened a can of worms concerning whether or not students should have the right to protest on school campuses. I believe that the rights we are given under the constitution should not be revoked purely because we are on a school campus.

The issue in this case was whether school-sponsored nondenominational prayer in public schools violates the Establishment clause of the first amendment (Facts and Case Summary - Engel v. Vitale, n.d.). This case dealt with a New York state law that had required public schools to open each day with the Pledge of Allegiance and a nondenominational prayer in which the students recognized their dependence upon God (Facts and Case Summary - Engel v. Vitale, n.d.). This law had also allowed students to absent themselves from this activity if they found that it was objectionable. There was a parent that sued the school on behalf of their child. Their argument was that the law violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, as made applicable

Prayer in public schools became an issue in 1960. A woman by the name of Madalyn Murray O’Hair sued the Baltimore, Maryland school system, because her son William J Murray was allegedly being forced to participate in prayer at the public school he attended. The American Atheist Organization, alongside Madalyn’s actions consequently led to the Supreme Court ruling in the 1960s. On June 17, 1963, the Supreme Court published its ruling on the case. The Supreme Court ruled that Bible reading and prayer in schools were unconstitutional. Justice Tom C. Clark, who wrote the court ruling, wrote that religious freedom is embedded in our public and private life, and while freedom of worship is indispensable in America, the government must be neutral

As a result of the Brown vs. Board of Education decision, The United States legislators wrote the Southern Manifesto in 1956. They believed that the final result of Brown v. Board of Education, which stated that separate school facilities for black and white children were fundamentally unequal, was an abuse of the judicial power. The Southern Manifesto called for the exhaust of all the lawful things they can do in order to stop all the confusion that would come from school desegregation. The Manifesto also stated that the 10th Amendment of the US Constitution should limit the power of the Supreme Court when it comes to these types of issues.

In Des Moines, Iowa, a group of individuals met at a home to discuss ways to protest the United States involvement in the Vietnam War. The group decided beginning on December 16th and lasting until New Year’s Day, the members of the group would fast and wear black armbands to show their opposition to the war. School officials became aware of the students’ protest and implemented a policy that any student wearing a black armband would be asked to remove it. If the students did not remove the armband, then the student would be suspended. The suspension would last until they returned to school without the armband. Three students were suspended until they returned to

“There were only a few students out of eighteen thousand students that actually wore the arm bands.”(Hall, Kermit) This was taken up to court for the court to stop the wearing of the arm bands because with kids saying things to the kids with them on it could eventually lead to arguments and such witch would then lead to disruptment. “Some people may argue and say that it is their right to wear the black arm bands to school do to their strong political views,”( "Conspiracy and the First Amendment”). “The only problem that happened in court is that they didn’t have enough evidence to prove that it would cause disruptment to others,” ("Tinker v. Des Moines").

The pledge that all American public schools recite today was written by Francis Bellamy in 1892. It was first published on September 8th in The Youth’s Companion, a popular children’s magazine. This edition of the magazine celebrated 400 years of Columbus’s arrival to America. This began a campaign to spread nationalism to children and sell flags to public schools. This original pledge stated. “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”(Bellamy). This pledge came with a salute similar to the salute used by Nazi-Germany. Bellamy had considered using the words “equality”and “fraternity” but had known state officials were against equality for women and African Americans.

This essay will cover the plaintiff Allan Bakke in addition to summarizing the arguments presented to the United States Supreme Court in Regents of the University of California v. Allan Bakke. Following the arguments present I will cover the court’s ruling in the case. Allan Bakke a form engineer is his 30’s, sought admission to medical school, but was rejected by 12 schools. After being denied twice by the University of California at Davis, he decided to sue Davis. Bakke was suing the school because he suspected the schools, affirmative action program was unfairly regulating his chances of enrolling into the school. After the U.S. Supreme Court accepted the case it received a lot of public attention causing a national debate. The school reserved

On the other hand, Judge Black rebutted:” I think the record overwhelmingly shows that the armbands did exactly what the elected school officials and principals foresaw they would, that is, took the students ' mind off their classwork and diverted them to thoughts about the highly emotional subject of Vietnam war. if the time has come when pupils of state- supported schools can defy and flout orders of school officials to keep their minds on their own work, It is the beginning of a new revolutionary era of permissiveness in this country fostered be the judiciary.”

During the Black Civil Rights movement there were several causes that lead up to the White Backlash in the late 1950 's including brown vs board of educatisting outside the integration of 9 Negro students at the Little Rock High School and the forced integration of the High School. My three causes are the brown vs board of education, the large crowds and protesting outside Little rock High school and also the forced integration of schools.

In December 1965, some students in Des Moines, Iowa, decided to wear black armbands to school as a symbol to protest against American involvement in the Vietnam War and to show their anti-war sentiment. Knowing the plan of the students, the principals of the Des Moines school met and created a new policy which stated that students would be asked to take off their armbands, and refusal would result in a suspension. Mary Beth Tinker, Christopher Eckhardt, and John Tinker ignored the policy and wore their armbands to school. After they refused to follow the school policy, they were sent home and were subsequently suspended until they removed the armbands after January 1, 1966, the date for the end of their protest. The three students then, through