and
Tinker v. Des Moines
Celeste Keith
Facts- Lemon v. Kurtzman
 In 1971, Pennsylvania and
Rhode Island governments
provided funding to churchrelated schools
 A group of people sued the
districts, claiming that the
funding violated the
establishment clause
 The issue is whether or not
governments can provide
funding to non-public
schools
Ruling- Lemon v. Kurtzman
 The supreme court decided
both the Pennsylvania and
the Rhode Island programs
were unconstitutional
 They created excessive
entanglement between
church and state
 The three factors that they
used to determine this
became known as the
“Lemon test”
Changes- Lemon v. Kurtzman
 This case changed the
way we think about
religion and education
 Has led to many other
lawsuits about the federal
funding of private
schools
 Chief Justice Burger first
used the “Lemon test”
that would be used in
many other cases to come
Facts- Tinker v. Des Moines
 Mary Beth Tinker was a 13
year old student that
decided to wear a black
arm band to school to
protest the Vietnam War
in 1965
 When she refused to
take it off, the school
sent her home and was
suspended
 She took her case to the
supreme court
Ruling- Tinker v. Des Moines
 In a 7-2 margin, the court ruled that the
rights of the students do not stop once
they enter school, and the kids do have
the right to wear the bands
 Because the armband was not disruptive,
the students had the constitutional right
to wear one
 “The school officials banned and sought
to punish petitioners for a silent, passive
expression of opinion, unaccompanied by
any disorder or disturbance on the part of
petitioners. There is here no evidence
whatever of petitioners' interference,
…with the schools' work or of collision
with the rights of other students to be
secure and to be let alone. Accordingly,
this case does not concern speech or
action that intrudes upon the work of the
schools or the rights of other students.” –
Justice Abe Fortas
Changes- Tinker v. Des Moines
 After the Tinker case,
schools had to be more
careful about what they
said the kids could and
could not wear
 Dress codes were
challenged
 How far can a school go to
strip kids of their 1st
Amendment rights while in
the vicinity of the school?
Works cited
 http://www2.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/scales/tinkerdec.
html
 http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/comm/free_speec
h/tinker.html
 http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USS
C_CR_0403_0602_ZS.html
 http://www.firstamendmentschools.org/freedoms/cas
e.aspx?id=477