Case Categories: Dress and Hair Regulations

Dress codes are typically implemented by school districts and employers to promote learning, safety, and image. Although such regulations face First Amendment challenges by students, parents, and employees, the courts generally support the schools and employers.

Likewise, employers generally may set standards for their employees’ personal appearance, including their hair length and style, if the regulations are related to legitimate business or governmental objectives. Employers, school officials, and prison administrators have given a number of reasons for regulations determining hair length and hair styles; among them are identification, safety, hygiene, and appropriateness.

Nevertheless, such regulations have led to First Amendment battles, with litigants in several cases challenging these policies for being discriminatory or for violating individuals’ rights to freedom of expression or the free exercise of religion.

• Canady v. Bossier Parish School Board (5th Cir.) (2001)

  Canady v. Bossier Parish School Board (5th Cir. 2001) ruled that a public school district did not violate students’ First Amendment rights when it required...

• Goldman v. Weinberger (1986)

  In Goldman v. Weinberger, the Court ruled that the U.S. military did not violate First Amendment rights by prohibiting soldiers from wearing religious apparel...

• Holt v. Hobbs (2015)

  Holt v. Hobbs (2015) ruled that prison officials violated the First Amendment religious liberty rights of a Muslim inmate by refusing to allow him to grow a...

• Kelley v. Johnson (1976)

  In Kelley v. Johnson (1976), the Supreme Court found that a county regulation limiting the length of county policemen’s hair did not violate the First or...

• Melton v. Young (6th Cir.) (1972)

  Melton v. Young (6th Cir. 1972) represents a time a court had to grapple with the troubling question of the First Amendment and Confederate flag clothing in...

• New Rider v. Board of Education, Pawnee County, Oklahoma (1973)

  In a case involving two Native American students, Justice William Douglas argued that the Supreme Court should settle the disputes in lower courts over the...

• Olff v. East Side Union High School District (1972)

  Although the Supreme Court never accepted a case on hair length of public school students, Justice Douglas dissented many times from the decision not to hear...

• Schacht v. United States (1970)

  Schacht v. United States (1970) said prohibiting the wearing of an armed forces uniform in theatrical productions that discredited the military violated the...

• Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969)

  Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969) established that public school students have First Amendment rights. It is the seminal...