Tinker vs. Des Moines Essay Example

In the supreme court cases, “Tinker vs. Des Moines” written by Justice Abe Fortas and Justice Hugo Black, they discuss the matter of high schoolers symbolic representation in school. During the Tinker vs. Des Moines case, Justice Hugo Black makes a stronger argument for his case by using rhetorical devices and figurative language.   

Justice Black’s argument includes figurative language and rhetorical questions. Arm bands were worn as a sign of death from those who had died in Vietnam. The argument states “First, the Court concludes that the wearing of armbands is "symbolic speech," which is "akin to pure speech,'" and therefore protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments.” Symbolism is a part of figurative language. Justice Fortas included “The record shows that students in some of the schools wore buttons relating to national political campaigns, and some even wore the Iron Cross, traditionally a symbol of Nazism.”

Justice Black makes use of ethos throughout his argument. He states many court cases throughout this writing. In paragraph 3, the first case he talks about is, “First Amendment, cf., e.g., Giboney v. Empire Storage & Ice Co., 336 U. S. 490 (1949).” This case also had to deal with the first amendment for another case of symbolism for students and teachers for their political opinions. Justice Black also mentions important people including “The Tinkers” and “Christopher Eckhardt.” These individuals wore their armbands to school because they said it was their right to “political speech.” People getting killed in war is not a political issue. Most people going into war are volunteering for that job and know they have a chance of dying. Justice Fortas’ ethos was dull. He mentions a lot of court cases such as “Burnside v. Byars, supra, at 749,” and many others. His lack of important persons hurts his ethos throughout his article.

In the case “Tinker v Des Moines”  Justice Hugo Black has a better understanding of                                       pathos and diction.  What is pathos and diction you ask, pathos is any type of feeling or emotion. Diction is the choice and use of words and phrases in speech or writing. In his argument he uses pathos to show emotion for example in the case it states, “The school officials banned and sought to punish petitioners for a silent, passive expression of opinion, unaccompanied by any disorder or disturbance on the part of petitioners.” He's using a lot of feelings by explaining how it was a lot of opinion based decisions. However, Fortas also uses a lot of pathos and diction. However, it's not as much and doesn't have a better understanding like Black’s case. 

In the Tinker vs. Des Moines case, Justice Hugo Black has a better understanding of figurative language than Fortas. Logos was used very often because you need a lot of facts in a case to make it successful. Pathos and diction makes the case have a lot of emotion and shows that it has a strong argument. Ethos was used to have examples of other court cases and using other court cases helps with you case because they know you did your research.