Louisiana Man Loses Supreme Court Fight After Prison Officials Cut His Dreadlocks Against His Rastafarian Beliefs

Louisiana Man Loses Supreme Court Fight After Prison Officials Cut His Dreadlocks Against His Rastafarian Beliefs

The Supreme Court has ended Damon Landor’s damages fight after Louisiana prison officials cut off his dreadlocks, as justices acknowledged his Rastafari beliefs were violated.

In a 6-3 ruling, the court said the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act protects incarcerated people’s religious rights but does not let them sue individual officers for damages. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the opinion, rejecting Landor’s reliance on a related 2020 no-fly list case.

Landor served five months in 2020 and carried a ruling saying cutting religious prisoners’ dreadlocks violated federal law. Two prisons respected it. Court records say staff at Raymond Laborde Correctional Center did not. A guard allegedly threw the ruling away before Landor was restrained and shaved to the scalp.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, warning officials may have little incentive to follow federal law.

“It is not often that a real-life incident so clearly illustrates Congress’s reasons for adopting legislation, or the Constitution’s wisdom in enabling it,” she wrote.

Louisiana said “the state has amended its prison grooming policy to ensure that nothing like petitioner’s alleged experience can occur.”