Supreme Court bars damages suit over shaved dreadlocks

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that a former Louisiana inmate cannot sue prison officials for monetary damages after they forcibly shaved his religiously mandated dreadlocks, even as the justices condemned the violation of his rights. The 6-3 decision, which split along ideological lines, held that the federal law protecting religious freedom for incarcerated individuals does not authorize financial lawsuits against individual state employees.

Damon Landor, a devout Rastafarian, was serving a five-month sentence for drug possession in 2020 when the incident occurred. He had not cut his hair for nearly two decades, and his dreadlocks reached his knees in observance of his faith. Upon being transferred to the Raymond Laborde Correctional Center, Landor presented guards with a copy of a 2017 federal appeals court ruling that protected Rastafarian inmates from having their hair cut. According to court records, a guard threw the document in the trash. Landor was then handcuffed to a chair and shaved bald.

After his release, Landor sued prison officials under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), a 2000 law designed to protect the religious...