Supreme Court Bars Rastafarian Prisoner from Suing Staff Over Dreadlock Cut

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a Rastafarian man cannot sue prison staff for money damages regarding the cutting of his dreadlocks.

On Tuesday, the high court upheld a lower court decision stating that prisoners cannot file lawsuits against individual employees under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.

Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion for the conservative bloc. He did not claim that Landor's religious rights were respected. Instead, he argued that prison officials could not be sued because they never agreed to be liable under the specific law.

"Mr. Landor's case cannot proceed against them any more than a breach of contract action might proceed against a defendant who never formed a contract," Gorsuch stated.

Damon Landor, who served a five-month term in Louisiana in 2020, entered prison carrying a copy of a 2017 ruling protecting religious prisoners.

Initially, officials honored his beliefs. However, after a transfer to the Raymond Laborde Correctional Center, a guard threw his legal documents in the trash. The facility's warden then ordered his hair cut.

Two guards held Landor down while a third shaved his head.

In a statement released by his lawyers, Landor expressed his disappointment but vowed to keep seeking justice.

"I am disappointed but not defeated," Landor said. "What happened to me violated my faith and my dignity. I will continue pursuing accountability. What happened to me should not happen to anyone else."

The three liberal justices on the bench issued a dissenting opinion. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson argued that the law functions as a statute, not a contract.

She warned that officials would lack incentive to follow legal protections without facing consequences for their actions.

"It is not often that a real-life incident so clearly illustrates Congress's reasons for adopting legislation, or the Constitution's wisdom in enabling it," Brown Jackson wrote.

The court's decision means that while the state entity receives federal funds, individual employees are not directly subject to the statute's liability provisions.