Supreme Court blocks damages suit over inmate’s cut dreadlocks
What’s new: The 6-3 ruling held a federal prison-religion law protects worship rights but does not let inmates collect money from individual officers.
The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that former Louisiana inmate Damon Landor cannot seek money damages from prison officials who cut off his dreadlocks despite his Rastafari faith. In a 6-3 decision, the justices said the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act does not authorize damages claims against individual state employees. Landor was serving a five-month sentence in 2020 when officials at Raymond Laborde Correctional Center in Cottonport restrained him and shaved his head, court records show. The court condemned the treatment, but sided with lower courts that had dismissed his case. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority, while Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented. Louisiana said it has since changed its prison grooming policy.