US supreme court blocks Rastafarian man’s lawsuit over forced head-shaving in prison

Damon Landor before and after his dreadlocks were shaved off. Composite: Supreme Court View image in fullscreen Damon Landor before and after his dreadlocks were shaved off. Composite: Supreme Court US supreme court blocks Rastafarian man’s lawsuit over forced head-shaving in prison In a 6-3 opinion, the court says Louisiana prisoner cannot sue guards after he grew his hair for more than 20 years The US supreme court refused on Tuesday to let a Rastafarian man sue ⁠state prison officials in Louisiana ⁠after guards held him ​down and shaved him bald in violation of his religious beliefs, in a landmark case. The case was brought under a federal law designed to protect incarcerated people from religious discrimination. The court, in a ⁠6-3 opinion, upheld a lower court’s decision to dismiss Damon Landor’s lawsuit because it found the statute at issue did not permit him to sue the individual ⁠prison officials and guards for monetary damages. Landor’s religion requires him to let his hair grow. The court’s three liberal justices dissented ​from the opinion. The law, called the Religious Land Use ‌and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, ‌prohibits religious discrimination by state and local governments in land-use regulations and also protects the religious rights of people confined ‌to institutions such as prisons and jails. The Trump administration backed Landor, urging the supreme court to revive the case. The court had expanded the rights of religious people and institutions in a series of opinions in recent years. It heard arguments in the case in November. Landor grew his hair over a span of 20 years into long locks that reached his knees. In 2020, near the end of ‌a five-month prison sentence for drug possession, Landor was transferred to the Raymond Laborde correctional center in Cottonport, Louisiana . There, Landor reminded officials that the New Orleans-based fifth US circuit court of appeals had ​ruled in a 2017 case that Louisiana’s policy of cutting the hair of Rastafarians violated the 2000 law. Landor even handed over a copy of that ruling, but a guard threw it in the trash, according to court documents in the case. Landor was then handcuffed to a chair, held down and shaved. The Rastafari religion dates back almost a century to Jamaica, with a recognition for an Ethiopian messiah and a vow that growing uncut dreadlocks is integral to the faith, in which Landor had declared himself a devout follower. “When I was strapped down and shaved, it felt like I was raped,” Landor said in a statement during the closely-watched case, as reported by ABC . Landor, who lives in Slidell, Louisiana sued, but a federal judge threw out his case. ⁠In 2023, the appeals court upheld that decision, concluding that the law at issue ​does not allow individual officials to be ​personally held liable for money damages. Without a damages ​remedy, the law would provide no deterrent against abuse by officials, Landor’s lawyers told the ​supreme court. Landor’s l