Tinker v. Des Moines: Anchoring students' free speech rights

Half a century later, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969) remains the Supreme Court’s authoritative ruling on symbolic speech and the First Amendment rights of K-12 students to express their political views.

Delivered in the context of the widespread social activism that defined the 1960s – anti-racism, anti-sexism and anti-war protests – Justice Abe Fortas’s 7-2 land...