Tinker事件判決 1969年

喪章をつけて13歳のMary Beth Tinkerさんが登校したのは1965年

彼女のその後については、英文中にある。素晴らしい生き方だ。

ベトナム戦争反対の意思表明をするために喪章を着けて登校したことを理由に、13歳の公立中学生が停学処分を受けたことを巡るアメリカの裁判。意思表明のために腕章を着けることが、憲法問題になり得るかについて、このような非言語的行為による意思の表明は、｢純然たる言論｣に極めて近いものと判断し、憲法修正第１条の「言論および出版」の自由（表現の自由）の問題となることを認めている。
　学校で生徒の人権保障がどのように扱われるかについて、この判決の次の箇所が繰り返し引用される。

　「われわれの制度では、州の運営する学校は全体主義の飛び地であってはならない。学校職員は生徒に対して絶対的な権限を有するものではない。生徒は学校内においても，学校外におけると同様に，わが連邦憲法の下での『人(persons）』である」「修正第１条の諸権利は、学校という環境の特質に照らして適用されるにしても、教師および生徒に対して認められている。生徒あるいは教師が，言論ないし表現の自由に対する各自の憲法上の諸権利を校門の所で捨て去るのだとは，とうてい主張できない」

と宣言し、自明のこととした。それ故、憲法上の正当な理由がない限り、生徒の言論を規制することはできないとした。

  Mary Beth Tinker was a 13-year-old junior high school student in December 1965 when she and a group of students decided to wear black armbands to school to protest the war in Vietnam. The school board got wind of the protest and passed a preemptive ban. When Mary Beth arrived at school on December 16, she was asked to remove the armband. When she refused, she was sent home.

Four other students were suspended, including her brother John Tinker and Chris Eckhardt. The students were told they could not return to school until they agreed to remove their armbands. The students returned to school after the Christmas break without armbands, but in protest wore black clothing for the remainder of the school year.

Represented by the ACLU, the students and their families embarked on a four-year court battle that culminated in the landmark Supreme Court decision: Tinker v. Des Moines. On February 24, 1969 the Court ruled 7-2 that students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate."

The Court ruled that the First Amendment applied to public schools, and school officials could not censor student speech unless it disrupted the educational process. Because wearing a black armband was not disruptive, the Court held that the First Amendment protected the right of students to wear one.

その後

Tinker remains a frequently-cited Court precedent. In Morse v. Frederick, the Supreme Court will decide whether Tinker remains good law, and whether the First Amendment continues to protect the right of students to express controversial views that are not disruptive but may disagree with official school policy. 

On Morse v. Frederick:

"With that slogan, he's proven once and for all that teens, with their creativity, curiosity and (to some), outrageous sense of humor, are naturals when it comes to holding the First Amendment to the test of time, even in these times." - Mary Beth Tinker

Mary Beth Tinker continues to educate young people about their rights, speaking frequently to student groups across the country. She is also active in directing the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project at American University, which mobilizes law students to teach courses on constitutional law and juvenile justice at public schools. Tinker is a registered nurse, an active leader in her union, and holds masters degrees in public health and nursing. In 2006, as a tribute to Tinker's devotion to the rights of young people, the ACLU National Board of Directors' Youth Affairs Committee renamed its annual youth affairs award, the "Mary Beth Tinker Youth Involvement Award."

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