Supreme Court Hears RLUIPA Damages Case on Prison Hair Cut

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Monday in the case of a Louisiana prisoner whose dreadlocks were forcibly cut by prison guards, raising questions about whether he can seek monetary damages from individual officials for violating his religious rights under federal law.

Damon Landor, a devout Rastafarian, had grown his hair for nearly two decades in observance of the Nazarite Vow, a religious commitment central to his faith. In 2020, while serving the final weeks of a five-month sentence for drug possession, Landor was transferred to the Raymond Laborde Correctional Center. Upon arrival, he presented guards with a copy of a 2017 ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, which held that Louisiana's policy of requiring Rastafarian inmates to cut their hair violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, or RLUIPA. The guards discarded the document, handcuffed Landor to a chair, and shaved his head bald, according to court records.

Landor sued the state and the prison officials, alleging a violation of RLUIPA, a 2000 law that prohibits governments from substantially burdening incarcerated individuals' religious exercise unless it...