Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District · ¶46

The true principles on this whole subject were in my judgment spoken by Mr. Justice McKenna for the Court in Waugh v. Mississippi University in 237 U. S. 589, 596-597. The State had there passed a law barring students from peaceably assembling in Greek letter fraternities and providing that students who joined them could be expelled from school. This law would appear on the surface to run afoul of the First Amendment’s freedom of assembly clause. The law was attacked as violative of due process and of the privileges and immunities clause and as a deprivation of property and of liberty, under the Fourteenth Amendment. It was argued that the fraternity made its members more moral, taught discipline, and inspired its members to study harder and to obey better the rules of discipline and order. This Court rejected all the “fervid” pleas of the fraternities’ advocates and decided unanimously…

U. S. Reports, bound volume
U. S. Reports, volume 393, at 503 (Library of Congress) · transcription: Caselaw Access Project
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