Source: The Plain Dealer
On December 11, 2001, The Plain Dealer reported that "an Ohio inmate may keep his flowing beard as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal yesterday to intervene in a challenge of state rules on prisoners' facial hair. The high court without comment let stand a 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling giving inmate Hbrandon Flagner, a Hasidic Jew, an exemption from Ohio's beard-length rule. The state argued that a decision in the Elyria native's favor could invite a flurry of lawsuits over prison grooming rules... Flagner, who changed his name from Chico Virgilio Tenorio in 1977, began his challenge in a U.S. District Court suit in Cincinnati, asserting that the beard regulation violated his right to religious freedom. The case now goes back to the district court where Flagner first sought an injunction against the beard rule on First Amendment grounds."