AP U.S. Government and Politics · Past multiple choice · Question 1, Current public overview
Student protest
Apply the precedent from a required First Amendment case to four actions by public school students.
The lesson this question tests
1 Read the question
The question is College Board's: sample question 1 in AP U.S. Government and Politics Course Overview. It starts on page 2 of the PDF.
2 Pick your answer
3 Check the explanation
Why the answer is D open once you have picked
In Tinker v. Des Moines (1969), students wore black armbands to school to protest the Vietnam War, and the Court held that this silent symbolic speech was protected by the First Amendment. Students do not shed their rights at the schoolhouse gate. A school can limit student expression only when it would cause a substantial disruption or invade the rights of others.
Wearing a shirt that objects to a school board decision is the closest match: a message carried by what students wear, expressing a political view, without disrupting school.
Each choice
- A. Leading prayers over the school's loudspeaker raises an establishment clause problem, as in Engel v. Vitale. It is not the kind of symbolic expression Tinker protects.
- B. Writing an editorial is pure speech in written form, not symbolic speech. Student papers are also a separate line of cases, so this does not rest on Tinker.
- C. Tinker draws its line at substantial disruption. Disrupting an assembly is exactly the conduct a school may stop.
- D (correct). Protest messages on clothing are silent, nondisruptive symbolic speech, just like the armbands in Tinker.
Question and answer key: College Board. The title and summary are ours, and so is the explanation.