The case, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District, ended up before the U.S. Supreme Court. In what is one of the most-often quoted affirmations of free speech in schools, the 7-2 majority wrote in its 1969 decision: "It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate."

Tinker is one of four key U.S. Supreme Court cases outlining the legal parameters of issues of school censorship. The other three are:

 

• Board of Education, Island Trees (New York) Union Free School District 26 v. Pico, which involved banning books from the school library.

   

• Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, which involved school officials' censorship of a student newspaper.

   

• Bethel School District v. Fraser, which involved a high school student's suspension for sexually suggestive remarks in a student-government nominating speech.

The Pico Case