The US Supreme Court has ruled that a former Louisiana inmate cannot sue the prison guards over shaving his dreadlocks, even though it is a violation of his Rastafarian faith. The guards in question forcibly shaved Damon Landor’s head by holding him down to cut his hair.
Supreme Court Decision
In a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court stated that Landor was not entitled to monetary damages under a federal religious freedom law, as it did not apply to individual officials. The court’s ruling stated that Landor couldn’t sue the prison officials over his treatment because the guards weren’t aware of the details of a federal law that protects religion.
“Mr. Landor would have us hold, for the first time, that so long as a penny of federal spending makes its way to an individual, however indirectly, Congress can regulate his conduct directly based on the fiction that he has consented to regulation,” the opinion, written by Justice Neil Gorsuch for a 6-3 court, said. “None of that is consistent with our precedents.”
Opposing Thoughts
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson criticized the majority ruling, saying that it’s “Prisoners like Landor who suffer violations of their religious freedom in state prisons – no matter how blatant – will often be left remediless.
And encroachments on prisoners’ statutory rights are likely to happen with fair frequency, as state-empowered prison officials will have little incentive to abide by federal law, even if it is handed to them on a piece of paper.
Furthermore, Jackson felt the decision of the Supreme Court effectively reduced “some of Congress’s greatest legislative achievements — federal laws that secure civil rights, environmental stability, healthcare, and more — to nothing more than the wheelings-and-dealings of an especially wealthy private party.”
Landor had just a few weeks left of his prison sentnece left when Louisiana prison guards handcuffed him to a chair and shaved off his knee-length dreadlocks. He had grown them for over almost two decades. Moments before they unjustly shaved his head, Landor handed his guards a judicial opinion demonstrating that they were required to allow dreadlocks for religious purposes.
However, the guards did not care what the opinion stated, opted to toss it in the trash, and commenced to shave his head. Having the Supreme Court basically rule in favor of the guards has upset many people, aside from Landor.
If they aren’t going to uphold the law and hold those who represent the law accountable, then what does that tell the people? The guards may not have had prior knowledge of the federal law, but they had prior knowledge of a judicial opinion stating the fact that his dreadlocks were considered religious. So one could argue they did have prior knowledge.
Sources:
CNN Politics: Supreme Court rules against Rastafarian who sued prison officials for cutting his dreadlocks
BBC: US top court says Rastafarian man cannot sue prison guards who cut his dreadlocks
Image by Richard Masoner Courtesy of Flickr – Creative Commons
