1.    Majority Opinion
a.    Yes.  Wearing armbands for the purposes of expressing certain
views is the type of symbolic act that allows Ds to invoke the First
Am.  Their wearing of armbands was closely akin to “pure speech,” and
was not “actually or potentially disruptive conduct.”
b.    The school authorities acted out of a wish to avoid
controversy which might stem from the students’ silent expression of
opinion about the War.  But this fear was not a valid reason for
banning the expression.  “[Mere] undifferentiated fear or
apprehension of disturbance is not enough to overcome the right to
freedom of expression.”  This fear was also not a valid reason
because it caused the rule to be content-based:  the rule was not to
prevent any disturbance, just disruption from protests against the
War.
c.    The rule is also content-based by the fact that the school
did not prohibit the wearing of all political or other controversial
symbols.  For example, buttons for national political campaigns, and
even the Nazi iron cross symbol, were permitted.
d.     “It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers
shed their  constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the
schoolhouse gate.”  But if the students’ act “materially and substantially interfered with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school” not specifically because of what they wore or their protest of the
Vietnam War—then the officials would have been justified in preventing the students’ act.
1.  If the officials would have been able to show they acted for this
reason, then that would have been the equivalent of showing that were
content-neutral, and would thus have entitled them to the less
stringent O’Brien test.
2.  What if officials had a rule that just banned all symbols?  Dave
says this is still unconstitutional under Tinker, because in order to
be banned the symbols must materially and substantially interfere
with school.
e.  Since the school did not show that the armbands materially and
substantially interfered with schoolwork, then the injunction is
granted and Ds cannot be suspended.