Supreme Court rules former inmate cannot sue prison guards who cut his dreadlocks

The US Supreme Court has ruled that a former Louisiana inmate cannot sue prison officials who forcibly shaved his dreadlocks in violation of his Rastafarian faith.

In a 6-3 ruling, the top court said the prisoner, Damon Landor, was not entitled to monetary damages under a federal religious freedom law as it did not apply to individual officials.

The justices said state employees did not consent to face lawsuits in their personal capacities when Congress passed the the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) in 2000.

The ruling marks a departure from a series of recent Supreme Court decisions, in which the justices have generally sided with religious-liberty claims.

In 2020, when Landor was serving time for a drug-related charge, officers handcuffed him to a chair and shaved his head after he argued it would violate his religious rights as a Rastafarian.

In a statement to USA Today, Landor said his dreadlocks are “a part of me and part of who I am”.

“So when they cut off my hair, they cut off my crown,” he said.

Growing uncut, uncombed hair into dreadlocks is a symbol of devotion and spiritual growth for Rastafarians.

In the opinion on Tuesday, Conservative justices ruled against Landor, while three liberal justices dissented.

Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that RLUPIA, which applies to local prisons that receive federal funding, does not allow for legal challenges against individual officials.

“Under the Spending Clause, Congress lacks regulatory authority to impose liability on them directly and must depend instead on consent,” Gorsuch wrote.

In her dissent, liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said the goal of RLUIPA was to “ensure that state and local prisons respect prisoners’ right to religious exercise”.