The Basic Logic of Post-Tinker Jurisprudence

Abstract

Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District1 is rightly regarded as a landmark student speech case. At this point, however, it is fair and important to ask about the likely consequences of radically abandoning Tinker and the succeeding case law.2 What might it mean, at this historical point, to abandon Tinker along with its qualifying and limiting cases? The discussion below briefly pursues this question and endorses a radical abandonment of Tinker and the succeeding cases as binding case law.