First Amendment Assignment PDF

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Supreme Court Case Analysis Use this chart to make notes about landmark Supreme Court cases. Be sure to include significant terms and quotes from the case opinion. Case: Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969) SYLLABUS What are the facts? What is the background? What law, amendment, and/or constitutional text is in dispute? Don’t forget to include relevant rulings, legislation, and events.

A group of Students in Des Moines decided to wear black armbands to school to protest the Vietnam war and support a truce. After hearing of the plan, the principals of the Des Moines schools created a policy banning armbands with the punishment of suspension. The students wore them anyway and got suspended. Their parents sued the district saying it violated the students’ right of expression protected by the First Amendment.

MAIN OPINION What was the decision? What was the majority opinion? Who wrote it? What were the key points? What reasoning was used to justify the opinion? Was there a concurring opinion with additional reasoning?

The court ruled that armbands represent pure speech and that the school couldn’t take away the student’s first amendment right unless the act or speech in question would “materially and substantially interfere” with school operations.

DISSENTING OPINION Wh di d?

Significant Quotes "The vigilant protection of constitutional freedoms is nowhere more vital than in the community of American schools… The classroom is peculiarly the `marketplace of ideas.’ “ - Justice Brennan Significant Quotes

Who disagreed? What was the dissenting opinion? Who wrote it? What were the key points? What reasoning was used to justify the opinion?

SIGNIFICANCE What are the implications? Why is it important? What precedent does it set for similar disputes?

Dissenting opinion stated that the First Amendment does not provide the right to express any opinion all the time. It was argued that the appearance of the armband distracted students which violated their right to education.

"[A] State may permissibly determine that, at least in some precisely delineated areas, a child—like someone in a captive audience—is not possessed of that full capacity for individual choice which is the presupposition of First Amendment guarantees." … Justice Stewart

The significance of the case is that it determined that students have protected rights like freedom of speech and it also set precedent for what kind of speech can be restricted by schools.

Case Comparison: What is the name of the case?: Morse v. Frederick (2007) What are the facts of the case?: At a televised public school event Joseph Frederick held up a banner that said “ Bong Hits 4 Jesus.” Frederick was then suspended by Principal Morse on the basis that the banner violated the school policy that forbade displaying material that promotes the use of illegal drugs. Frederick appealed the suspension by claiming it violated his First Amendment. What was the majority opinion of the case?: The majority opinion was that students don’t have the same protected free speech rights as adults do. In this case, students political speech is protected the same as adults but the school has an important objective to discourage drug use. So, Frederick’s pro-drug message was not protected. Compare the case to Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District: Both cases are about the right to free speech at school and school events. The speech that the group in Des Moines and the speech Frederick had were very different since the group’s speech was political and Frederick’s speech was a more prodrug use message. The outcome of each court case was different since the court ruled in favor of the group of students in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School whereas in Morse v. Frederick. the court sided with the school. Justice Roberts is quoted in saying that students don’t “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of

speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate” when talking about Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District. However, Justice Roberts also said that “the constitutional rights of students in public school are not automatically coextensive with the rights of adults in other settings,”...