Tinker v. Des Moines School District/Concurrence Stewart
| Tinker v. Des Moines School District by Concurring Opinion |
| Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District... resulted in a decision defining the constitutional rights of students in U.S. public schools. It is considered one of the Court's more controversial decisions of the 1960s regarding freedom of speech. The Tinker test is still used by courts today to determine whether a school's disciplinary actions violate students' First Amendment rights.— Excerpted from Tinker v. Des Moines on Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. |
MR. JUSTICE STEWART, concurring.
Although I agree with much of what is said in the Court's opinion, and with its judgment in this case, I [515] cannot share the Court's uncritical assumption that, school discipline aside, the First Amendment rights of children are co-extensive with those of adults. Indeed, I had thought the Court decided otherwise just last Term in Ginsberg v. New York, 390 U.S. 629. I continue to hold the view I expressed in that case: "[A] State may permissibly determine that, at least in some precisely delineated areas, a child—like someone in a captive audience—is not possessed of that full capacity for individual choice which is the presupposition of First Amendment guarantees." Id., at 649-650 (concurring in result). Cf. Prince v. Massachusetts, 321 U.S. 158.
