SCOTUS to hear case of Rastafarian whose dreadlocks were shaved by prison guards

The Supreme Court has agreed to perceive the entreaty of a erstwhile Louisiana situation inmate whose dreadlocks were shaved by guards successful usurpation of his spiritual beliefs

WASHINGTON -- WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court agreed connected Monday to perceive the entreaty of a erstwhile Louisiana situation inmate whose dreadlocks were chopped disconnected by situation guards successful usurpation of his spiritual beliefs.

The justices volition reappraisal an appellate ruling that held that the erstwhile inmate, Damon Landor, could not writer situation officials for wealth damages nether a national instrumentality aimed astatine protecting prisoners’ spiritual rights.

Landor, an adherent of the Rastafari religion, adjacent carried a transcript of a ruling by the appeals tribunal successful another inmate's case holding that cutting spiritual prisoners’ dreadlocks violates the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.

Landor hadn't chopped his hairsbreadth successful astir 2 decades erstwhile helium entered Louisiana's situation strategy successful 2020 connected a five-month sentence. At his archetypal 2 stops, officials respected his beliefs. But things changed erstwhile helium got to the Raymond Laborde Correctional Center successful Cottonport, astir 80 miles (130 kilometers) northwest of Baton Rouge, for the last 3 weeks of his term.

A situation defender took the transcript of the ruling Landor carried and tossed it successful the trash, according to tribunal records. Then the warden ordered guards to chopped his dreadlocks. While 2 guards restrained him, a 3rd shaved his caput to the scalp, the records show.

Landor sued aft his release, but little courts dismissed the case. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lamented Landor's attraction but said the instrumentality doesn't let him to clasp situation officials liable for damages.

The Supreme Court volition perceive arguments successful the fall.

Landor's lawyers reason that the tribunal should beryllium guided by its decision successful 2021 allowing Muslim men to writer implicit their inclusion connected the FBI's no-fly database nether a sister statute, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

President Donald Trump's Republican medication filed a little supporting Landor's close to writer and urged the tribunal to perceive the case.

Louisiana asked the justices to cull the appeal, adjacent arsenic it acknowledged Landor's mistreatment.

Lawyers for the authorities wrote that “the authorities has amended its situation grooming argumentation to guarantee that thing similar petitioner’s alleged acquisition tin occur.”

The Rastafari religion is rooted successful 1930s Jamaica, increasing arsenic a effect by Black radical to achromatic assemblage oppression. Its beliefs are a melding of Old Testament teachings and a tendency to instrumentality to Africa. Its connection was dispersed crossed the satellite successful the 1970s by Jamaican euphony icons Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, 2 of the faith’s astir celebrated exponents.

The lawsuit is Landor v. Louisiana Department of Corrections, 23-1197.

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