Three D.C. Circuit judges got to play Supreme Court justices on Dec. 14— nearly 60 years after the Warren Court heard arguments in the First Amendment challenge: Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District. Judges David Tatel, Sri Srinivasan and Ketanji Brown Jackson heard two of Tatel's clerks reenact the Tinker arguments for a crowd of about 200 D.C. high school students.

On. Dec. 16, 1965, Mary Beth Tinker and Christopher Eckhardt wore black armbands to school to show their support for a truce in the Vietnam War. The students were suspended when they refused to remove the armbands. Their challenge went to the Supreme Court which, in a 7-2 decision by Justice Abe Fortas, held that the students did not lose their First Amendment speech rights at the schoolhouse door.

The Dec. 14 Tinker reenactment was sponsored by the Historical Society of the D.C. Circuit.