The US Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that a devout Rastafarian whose knee-length dreadlocks were forcibly shorn in jail cannot sue state prison officials for damages.
Damon Landor had sought permission to sue individual officials of the Louisiana Department of Corrections for monetary damages for violating his religious rights.
Louisiana acknowledged that the treatment of Landor by prison guards was “antithetical to religious freedom” and amended its prison grooming policy.
But the southern US state insists that federal law does not permit monetary damages against a state official sued in an individual capacity.
The Supreme Court agreed in a 6-3 ruling. The three liberal justices on the court dissented.
Landor, who had been growing his hair for nearly two decades, was serving the final three weeks of a five-month sentence for drug possession in 2020 when his hair was cut.
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