Litigating School Dress Codes

Twenty-eight years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court invoked the majesty of the Constitution and came to the aid of the Tinker children--John, Jane, and Sarah. Des Moines, Iowa, school officials had sent the children home from school for wearing black armbands in protest of the Vietnam War. The children sued, arguing that the First Amendment gave them the right to express themselves in this quiet and dignified way.

In a 1969 decision, the high court agreed with the Tinkers. Children do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse door, the court wrote in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District . Unless their expression threatens to disrupt the school environment, children can speak their mind.

Over the years, courts have invoked Tinker many times in cases involving a schoolchild's right to free expression. Unfortunately, few of these cases address issues as noble as the one the Tinker children brought forward. Indeed, a large number of these suits have been trivial disputes over school dress...