Freedom Of Speech: Tinker Vs. Des Moines

What if you were suspended from school because of something you were wearing? Not only was the clothing or item appropriate, it was something you were fighting for or something you believe is right. Is this fair or okay for this to happen? There is a specific incident that this situation happened to a few teenagers in Des Moines, Iowa in December of 1965. A group of students wanting to wear black armbands throughout the holiday season was in for a wake up call. (FORTAS) These plans and or idea were quickly shot down by the high school principals. The principals caught wind of the teen’s plan, so there was a meeting a few days beforehand. The talk of the meeting was to ensure the teens that if they were to wear the black armbands a few

“Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech.” (Jacobus 93). Just like the Freedom of Religion there are limitations placed on the Freedom of Speech so that other people’s rights aren’t compromised. For example, people are not allowed to present true threats, or “fighting words” to another person. This restriction was put into play in the court case of Chaplinsky vs. New Hampshire. The Court ruled that “fighting words, by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace and may be punished consistent with the First Amendment.” (Ruane 3-4). In this case if someone was to use “fighting words” which is their perceived freedom of speech, it would not only violate the law, it could violate someone’s freedom of pursue life, liberty, and happiness. With this, we can see that freedom is not always as it

Freedom of speech gives people The right to free speech, which is one of the most precious rights an individual has as a citizen of the United States of America. This right gives people the opportunity to speak their mind and give their opinions of what they think should happen. These rights have been questioned and exercised throughout history and have produced extremely positive things in a lot of cases. The questioning of these rights are

The first amendment, the right of freedom of speech is one of the most important classic fantasy to almost anyone living in the United States, building the foundation of our nation. This right gives us plenty of different opportunities to express our opinions and political viewpoints on any issues in America. But it comes with a price, people have been protesting multiple different events trying to prevent people from expressing opposing opinions or political viewpoints on that has issues in America. For the minority of people, expressing a different opinion should be protected no matter how controversial or insensitive it may be.

     Since this country was founded, we have had a set of unalienable rights that our constitution guarantees us to as Americans. One of the most important rights that is mentioned in our constitution is the right to free speech. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the

The 1960’s was the height of many civil rights and anti-war protests. During this time, student activist became more radical. It began mostly on college campuses when students would organize “teach-ins” to express their opposition to the Vietnam War. In 1969, the Supreme Court issued a ruling in a case called Tinker v. Des Moines. This case changed the history of America because it gave students freedom to voice their opinions. In the case of Tinker v. Des Moines, the question of whether or not the First Amendment’s free speech rights extend to students’ symbolic speech can be analyzed by examining the background, considering the arguments, and reviewing the impact.

America’s first president George Washington once argued at the [whenever he said this] that “If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” It is an essential component to the daily life of any constitutional republic, such as that of the United States even though it is a right granted to all American citizens, in the past, freedom of speech has been abridged to accommodate political correctness, to prevent disruptive behavior that could negatively affect others, and to protect confidential military information.

Americans and free speech go together like burger king. You can always have it your way, but at what cost? Free speech is something that has been around for a long time, but has involved & seen various dilemmas that make you want to question it & your own freedom. Although free speech was guaranteed in the first amendment there have been many situations that in a complex way make you think about your own rights & the whole purpose of being born in the United States with them. If I was to wake up one day & decide that I wanted to freely create a protest expressing that I support gay rights or the LGBT community then by all means I should be able to do that without any interference.

Freedom of Expression is a right that all Americans can joy on a daily basis, now imagine if it were a controlled right? That doesn’t make it a right, more so something that we can use when the government says so. In November of 1968, 4 students organized a silent protest against the US policies in Vietnam, which ended with suspension from their local schools. The issue was brought up in court, which led to split consensus. The majority opinion of the Supreme Court was that the expression of speech couldn’t be prohibited unless it was a disruption and harmed the rights of others. The dissent opinion stated that if freedom of speech was without a limit to an extent, who says it could lead to school being a platform for the exercise of free speech instead of education. The argument came to the conclusion of defining the rights and freedom of speech for children in school. I agree with the majority opinion, seeing the freedom of expression shouldn’t be controlled and such.

Being expression one of the most important rights of the people to maintain a connected society right to speech should be accepted to do so. The first amendment is one of the most fundamental rights that individuals have. It is fundamental to the existence of democracy and the respect of human dignity. This amendment describes the principal rights of the citizens of the United States. If the citizens were unable to criticize the government, it would be impossible to regulate order. By looking freedom of speech there is also freedom of assembly and freedom of press that are crucial for the United States democracy.

When it comes to this student in Michigan at Franklin D. Roosevelt that was case for her. When reading the article of "HS Student Asked to Remove anti War Shirt" by Tamar Lewis the first amendment to even wear a shirt of his choice wasn’t respected , as Bretton Barber a H.S junior wore a shirt with ex-president George Bush face on it with the words of "international Terrorists " as well. Not only did the school take affiance to it but they sent him home as well. In times like these I think there are good uses of free speech and bad , and this is no were near the bad kind. I think many need to look into this right of the freedom of speech. As you can't even wear a shirt you may strongly believe in , but there can be people in today's world in a "protest" calling people the "N" word to people's faces. To calling homosexual people god mistake is more right than a shirt then I don’t know what Americas come to. As in the article you read on how a 17 year old boy is getting criticized for not maintain an environment of "conductive to learning". At the time maybe I understand we were gearing up for a war but even if that the case how can you take his rights as a free American away from him. Just because he may feel differently than the next one hundred people around him is not right nor is a good look on the route of the United States as a

That applies greatly to the freedoms of expression guaranteed to us by the Bill of Rights as well. Over the years, court cases have specified what Madison meant when he wrote that citizens would have freedom of speech, religion, press, and assembly. We all follow the same basic restrictions on freedom of expression which fall into the three categories of time, place, and manner. When looking into the potential limits of freedom of expression, you must understand the cause and effects of the people using those rights on the people as a whole. In Abrams v. United States, the defendants threw leaflets out the window that contained material that were said to be against the U.S.’s actions to impede the Russian Revolution. The court found them guilty for resisting the war effort and calling for the curtailment of war products. Was this a violation of the defendant’s right to freedom of speech? No, this was not a violation of the first amendment to freedom of speech because it was claimed that there was a call for violent action or a riot during a fragile time in the U.S. Although cases in which freedom of speech are discussed are often highly controversial, it is only because of the importance of both the freedom of speech as well as the limits on freedom of

Freedom of speech is important because it lets us express our opinion, feelings and thoughts. We only have freedom of speech when needed. The first amendment lets us know what the freedom of speech.

Free speech should not be restricted.  The first amendment gives the right for anyone to say whatever he or she wants, whenever they want and guarantees us the privilege to speak our minds without limitations.   Our right to free speech is one thing that sets the United States apart from any other country.  Since September 11, 2001 all

Freedom of speech in schools causes punishments. In 1965 at junior high school, Mary Beth Tinker, a 13 year old wore a black armband to protest the Vietnam War. So Mary was speaking her mind, by wearing that. “The school promptly suspended her.”(Wheeler) So Mary was using her right of the first adment. But she got punishment for abusing that right. So in the end Mary should not have done that. “In 1998 a high school principal in dade county (Miami) Florida called the police and had 9 kids arrested after they published and distributed a pamphlet called “The First Amendment””(Martinson). The pamphlet included things like the principle with a dart board behind him and said things like “Sometimes I wonder what would happen if I shot the principle.” The pamphlet had many other things this is just a generalization of what they had. Generally the pamphlet was a very bad thing with hurtful remarks about people, and more. Also this is an example of punishment because the 9 students got arrested. Being arrested and suspended is only two of the things that can happen by being punished by using the first amendment. This is one of the reasons I believe that freedom of speech should be limited because people could end up being punished for doing things like discriminating them.