Toothless Tinker: The Continued Erosion of Student Speech Rights

Abstract

This article analyzes four primary ways in which federal courts have weakened Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, the US Supreme Court's landmark student speech case. The study focuses particularly on recent circuit court interpretations of Tinker. Analysis shows that even when Tinker provides the controlling precedent in a case, students are losing their First Amendment claims with alarming frequency, leaving student speech advocates to wonder what rights students actually have left.