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Overview: Respondent school officials suspended petitioner students from public high school because they wore black armbands to school in protest of the Vietnam War. Petitioners sued respondents under 42 U.S.C.S. § 1983. The trial court dismissed the complaint, upholding the constitutionality of respondents' action on the ground that it was reasonable in order to prevent the disturbance of school discipline. The circuit court affirmed. The Supreme Court reversed because the wearing of armbands was entirely divorced from actually or potentially disruptive conduct by those that participated in it. Petitioners' conduct was closely akin to pure speech which was entitled to comprehensive protection under the First Amendment, absent facts that might reasonably have led school officials to forecast substantial disruption of or material interference with school activities.

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