Supreme Court rules schools cannot silence student political speech without proof of substantial disruption in Tinker v. Des Moines

The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that Des Moines school officials violated the First Amendment when they suspended students for wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War, holding that students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." Des Moines principals had preemptively banned armbands on December 14, 1965 — two days before 13-year-old Mary Beth Tinker, her brother John, and three friends wore them to school and were suspended. Justice Abe Fortas established the "substantial disruption" test: schools may restrict student speech only when they can show the expression would materially and substantially interfere with school operations.