WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that a former inmate from Louisiana cannot sue prison officials who cut his dreadlocks, which violated his Rastafari religious beliefs.
While the justices criticized the treatment of Damon Landor, they concluded that the federal law meant to protect inmates’ religious rights does not allow for monetary compensation even when these rights are infringed.
The Supreme Court concurred with previous court decisions that the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act cannot be used to impose financial accountability on those who infringe on inmates’ rights.
The justices chose not to extend the reasoning from their decision from 2020, which permitted Muslim men to seek damages over their placement on the FBI’s no-fly list under a related statute, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The Justice Department, which had opposed the plaintiffs in the no-fly list case during President Donald Trump’s administration, supported Landor’s position.
During Landor’s five-month prison sentence in 2020, no one defended the actions taken against him. He had entered the system with a copy of a court ruling from another inmate’s case, which held that cutting religious prisoners’ dreadlocks was against federal law.
Initially, his beliefs were respected at two facilities. However, upon his arrival at the Raymond Laborde Correctional Center in Cottonport, around 80 miles northwest of Baton Rouge, for the final three weeks of his sentence, the situation changed.
According to court documents, a prison guard discarded the court ruling Landor had with him. Subsequently, the warden directed guards to cut his dreadlocks, during which two guards held him down while a third shaved his head to the scalp.
After his release, Landor filed a lawsuit; however, lower courts dismissed it. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals expressed regret over Landor’s treatment but stated that the law does not enable him to hold prison officials accountable for damages.
The state of Louisiana stated that it has revised its prison grooming policy to prevent incidents similar to Landor’s alleged experience.
The Rastafari religion, which originated in 1930s Jamaica, emerged as a response to colonial oppression. It blends Old Testament teachings with a desire to return to Africa and was popularized globally in the 1970s by Jamaican musicians Bob Marley and Peter Tosh.
