Reflections on the First Amendment Paper

Introduction

The First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, grants American citizens with the freedom of speech, religion, and press. The United States consists of billions of individuals, which pride themselves in their ability to communicate through their freedom of speech. With this right, the people are able to communicate their true feelings verbally and nonverbally. Of course, sometimes this can be an extremely wonderful right to possess (using it to stand up for personal beliefs), while sometimes people can abuse (using it to call friends derogatory names) the right as well. There are two court cases that exemplify these examples and represent a part of the framework around why the people possess their right to freedom of speech.

Tinker v. Des Moines School District

The Tinker v. Des Moines case took place in Des Moine, Iowa, in the Fall of 1968. John Tinker, a 15 year old boy, his 13 year old sister, Mary Beth Tinker, and Christopher Echardt, a 16 year old boy, all decided along with their parents to protest against the Vietnam War by wearing black armbands to their Des Moines schools during the Christmas holiday season (The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, 2011). Upon learning of their intentions, and fearing that the armbands would cause major disturbances, the principals of the Des Moines school district resolved that all students wearing armbands would be asked to remove them or face suspension (The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, 2011). When the Tinker siblings and Christopher wore their armbands to school, they were indeed asked to remove them. When they refused, they were suspended until after New Year's Day, but there was one question that stood to be answered. Does a prohibition against the wearing of armbands in public school, as a form of symbolic protest, violate the First Amendment's freedom of speech protections? The wearing of the armbands was closely related to 'pure speech and...