What court cases involving the 1st Amendment with students?

What happened in the United States v Lopez case?

Alfonso D. Lopez, Jr., 514 U.S. 549 (1995), also known as U.S. v. Lopez, was a landmark case of the United States Supreme Court that struck down the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 (GFSZA), determining that it was not a valid exercise of Congress's power to regulate interstate commerce.

What is the Tinker v. Des Moines case about?

Tinker v. Des Moines is a historic Supreme Court ruling from 1969 that cemented students' rights to free speech in public schools. 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.

What is the FSC v Paxton case?

Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton, 606 U.S. 461 (2025), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case allowing states to require Internet pornography websites to verify the age of viewers in order to prevent access by minors.

What was the Baker v. Carr case about?

Carr. Baker v. Carr involved a claim that the Tennessee legislature had failed to reapportion the state's legislative districts in accordance with the state constitution.

What cases focused on the rights of public school students?

Related Content

• Tinker v. Des Moines.
• Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier.
• Morse v. Frederick.

What happened in Mahmoud v. Taylor?

Supreme Court

On June 27, 2025, in a 6-3 decision, the Court sided with the parents, stating that the government burdens parents' religious exercise when it requires their children to participate in instruction that violates the families' religious beliefs. The Court declined to limit Yoder to its facts.

What is the First Amendment for students?

Do I have First Amendment rights in school? You have the right to speak out, hand out flyers and petitions, and wear expressive clothing in school — as long as you don't disrupt the functioning of the school or violate school policies that don't hinge on the message expressed.

Does school violate the First Amendment?

Although students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate,” school administrators must have the ability to restrict speech that is harmful to other students, in this instance promoting illegal drug use.

What Court case is about freedom of speech in schools?

The landmark decision in Tinker v. Des Moines is widely considered the watershed of students' free speech rights at school. Apply it to a contemporary scenario in which students stage a school walkout to protest a new dress code that bans messages on clothing.

What is an example of freedom of expression for students?

Saying what you want without being punished is considered free speech. Remaining silent can also be a freedom of speech example. While many schools begin their days by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in classrooms (sometimes over the public address system), public school students cannot be required to say it.

What happened in the Schenck v U.S. case?

The Court, in a unanimous opinion written by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., held that Schenck's criminal conviction was constitutional. The statute only applied to successful obstructions of the draft, but common-law precedents allowed prosecution for attempts that were dangerously close to success.

What is Ken Paxton accused of?

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has faced multiple high-profile legal issues, including a State Securities Fraud Indictment (charges were dropped after he completed a deal involving restitution and community service) and an Impeachment by the Texas House (he was acquitted by the Senate on charges of bribery, abuse of office, and obstruction). He was also subject to a federal corruption investigation by the DOJ, which declined prosecution, and a whistleblower lawsuit by former aides related to his alleged misuse of office for a donor, which remains his primary outstanding legal challenge. 

What is a famous Court case involving the First Amendment?

Whitney v. California, 274 U. S. 357 (1927): Since Anita Whitney did not base her defense on the First Amendment, the Supreme Court, by a 7 to 2 decision, upheld her conviction of being found guilty under the California's 1919 Criminal Syndicalism Act for allegedly helping to establish the Communist Labor Party, a ...

Who said students don't shed their constitutional rights at the school house gates?

In 1969 the United States Supreme Court ruled in a 7-2 decision in favor of the students. The high court agreed that students' free rights should be protected and said, "Students don't shed their constitutional rights at the school house gates."

What are the limits to student free speech?

However, speech that is obscene, libelous, or slanderous; or that so incites students that it creates a clear and present danger of unlawful acts on school premises, violations of school regulations, or the substantial disruption of the orderly operation of the school, is prohibited.

What were the students in the Tinker case protesting?

In Tinker v. Des Moines, students protested the Vietnam War by wearing black armbands to school as a silent symbol of their opposition and support for a truce, leading to their suspension for violating a new school rule, which sparked the landmark Supreme Court case affirming students' First Amendment rights to free speech.
 

What did the Supreme Court rule in Goss v Lopez?

The Ruling in Goss v. Lopez. When the case made its way to the Supreme Court, it was ruled 5-4 that students should be given some form of due process before having their right to a free public education temporarily removed.

Was the gun free school zone act overturned?

The Supreme Court of the United States held that the original Act was an unconstitutional exercise of Congressional authority under the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution in United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549 (1995).

What constitutional clause is common to both Gonzales v Raich and United States v. Lopez?

The constitutional clause that is common to both cases is the commerce clause, which says that the government can regulate interstate commerce. US v Lopez was a case in which a law was passed that said no guns in a school zone, based on the commerce clause.