Join the Politics, Policy, and Law (PPL) Scholars program as it hosts Mary Beth Tinker, lead plaintiff from the landmark case, Tinker v. Des Moines, heard by the U.S. Supreme Court more than 50 years ago during the height of the Vietnam War.
 

Tinker, 13 years old at the time, wore a black armband to her middle school to protest the war, and was suspended by the Des Moines Independent School District,setting the stage for a decision by the Court to uphold her right to protest. Tinker clearly established First Amendment rights for students and teachers, with Justice Abe Fortas writing for the majority that students and teachers do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”