SCOTUS Seems Skeptical in Prison Dreadlocks Case

The Supreme Court sounded dubious Monday about letting a Louisiana inmate sue prison officials for cutting off his dreadlocks, a move he says violated his religious rights as a Rastafarian.

• Damon Landor had a month left in a five-month sentence for drug possession in 2020 when he was transferred to a new prison, where guards strapped him to a chair and shaved off the dreadlocks he'd grown for almost 20 years. He was carrying a copy of a court opinion that required prisons to allow prisoners to keep their dreadlocks for religious reasons, the New York Times reports. He said a guard threw the opinion in the trash.

• Landor's case hinges on the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, a federal law protecting inmates' religious practices. But Louisiana argues that the law is more like a funding contract between the federal government and the state, meaning individual guards can't be sued for damages because they weren't parties to the deal.
• While the facts drew sympathy—Justice Amy Coney Barrett called them "egregious"—even the court's conservatives, normally supportive of religious rights, seemed wary of opening the door to personal lawsuits against state employees over federal funding conditions, CNN reports. Justice Neil Gorsuch floated a hypothetical involving transgender athletes: Could a student sue a coach personally for millions over a college's compliance with federal law?
• Zack Tripp, an attorney for Landor, argued that lawsuit like Landor's are an effective way to stop prisons from abusing inmates' rights, saying officials "can treat the law like garbage" if they never have to pay damages, the Washington Post reports.

• The justices noted that lower courts have consistently ruled against claims like Landor's, and the 5th Circuit, while condemning his treatment, said precedent was clear. The court's three liberals focused their hardest questions on Louisiana's side, but a majority of justices appeared skeptical of Landor's arguments. The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the case next year.
• Last year, a federal appeals court judge said Landor had "clearly suffered a grave legal wrong," the Times reports. Prison staff, Judge Edith Brown Clement of the 5th Circuit wrote, "violated Damon Landor's rights in a stark and egregious manner, literally throwing in the trash our opinion holding that Louisiana's policy of cutting Rastafarians' hair violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act before pinning Landor down and shaving his head." She added, however, that whether he can sue prison officials "is a question only the Supreme Court can answer."