Latest news with #prisonrights
South China Morning Post
4 hours ago
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Top US court takes case of Rastafarian whose hair was cut in prison
The US Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear the case of a devout Rastafarian whose knee-length dreadlocks were forcibly cut while he was in prison in the southern state of Louisiana. Advertisement Damon Landor is seeking permission to sue individual officials of the Louisiana Department of Corrections for monetary damages for violating his religious rights. 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. Landor presented prison guards with a copy of a 2017 court ruling stating that Rastafarians should be allowed to keep their dreadlocks in line with their religious beliefs. A prison guard threw the document away and Landor was handcuffed to a chair and had his head shaved, according to court records. Advertisement An appeal court condemned Landor's 'egregious' treatment but ruled that he is not eligible to sue individual prison officials for damages.
New York Times
10 hours ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Supreme Court to Hear Rastafarian Prisoner's Suit Over Shaved Dreadlocks
The Supreme Court said on Monday that it would decide whether a Rastafarian man may sue prison guards in Louisiana who shaved off his dreadlocks in seeming violation of an appeals court's ruling about how the state must treat members of his faith. The case concerns Damon Landor, whose faith requires him to let his hair grow long. When he started a five-month prison term for drug possession in Louisiana in 2020, his dreadlocks fell nearly to his knees. Mr. Landor was wary of the state's prison system, according to a lawsuit he later filed, and he kept a copy of a 2017 judicial decision with him. That ruling, from a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, said that Rastafarian inmates in Louisiana must be allowed to keep their dreadlocks under a 2000 federal law protecting prisoners' religious freedom. The first four months of Mr. Landor's incarceration were uneventful. Then he was transferred to the Raymond Laborde Correctional Center in Cottonport, La. According to his lawsuit, he presented a copy of the 2017 decision to a guard, who threw it in the trash. After consulting the warden, two guards handcuffed Mr. Landor to a chair, held him down and shaved his head to the scalp. 'When I was strapped down and shaved, it felt like I was raped,' Mr. Landor said in a statement last year. 'And the guards, they just didn't care. They will treat you any kind of way. They knew better than to cut my hair, but they did it anyway.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Reuters
10 hours ago
- Politics
- Reuters
US Supreme Court to hear case over Rastafarian man shaved bald in prison
June 23 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear a Rastafarian man's bid to sue state prison officials in Louisiana after guards held him down and shaved him bald in violation of his religious beliefs. The justices took up an appeal by Damon Landor, whose religion requires him to let his hair grow, of a lower court's decision to throw out his lawsuit brought under a federal law that protects against religious infringement by state and local governments. The lower court found that this law did not permit Landor, 46, to sue individual officials for monetary damages. The Supreme Court is due to hear the case in its next term, which begins in October. The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, has expanded the rights of religious individuals and institutions in a series of rulings in recent years. The dispute concerns a federal law called the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, which prohibits religious discrimination in land-use regulations and also protects the religious rights of people confined to institutions such as prisons and jails. Landor had grown his hair over 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 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had already ruled in a 2017 case that Louisiana's policy of cutting the hair of Rastafarians violated the 2000 law, even handing over a copy of that ruling. But a guard threw it in the trash, according to court documents, and Landor was then handcuffed to a chair, held down and shaved. Landor, who lives in Slidell, Louisiana, sued, but a federal judge threw out his case. In 2023, the 5th Circuit upheld that decision. "We emphatically condemn the treatment that Landor endured," the 5th Circuit wrote in its ruling, but nevertheless said the law does not allow individual officials to be personally held liable for money damages. Landor's lawyers told the Supreme Court that the statute at issue is similar to a 1993 law called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which prohibits religious infringement by the federal government. In 2020, the Supreme Court allowed for money damages claims under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in a case involving a bid by three Muslim U.S. citizens to sue FBI agents who they accused of placing the men on the government's "no-fly list" for refusing to become informants. A lawyer for Landor, Zachary Tripp, welcomed Monday's decision to hear the case. "Nobody should have to experience what Mr. Landor endured," Tripp said. "A decision in Mr. Landor's favor will go a long way towards holding officers accountable for egregious violations of religious liberty, and ensuring that what happened to Mr. Landor does not happen to anyone else." In a filing to the Supreme Court, Louisiana said it has changed its grooming policy in prisons to prevent Landor's experience from happening again. But the state urged the judges to reject the case, saying a ruling in Landor's favor "would overwhelmingly exacerbate a crushing workforce problem" for states in staffing prisons around the country. In another religious rights ruling, the Supreme Court on June 5 endorsed a bid by an arm of a Catholic diocese in Wisconsin for a religious exemption from the state's unemployment insurance tax.
CBS News
10 hours ago
- Politics
- CBS News
Supreme Court takes up case of Rastafarian man seeking to sue prison officials for cutting his dreadlocks
Washington — The Supreme Court said Monday that it will consider a religious rights case brought by a former Louisiana inmate who is seeking to sue Louisiana prison officials for money damages for shaving his dreadlocks in violation of his religious beliefs. The high court will review a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit that said the former inmate, Damon Landor, could not seek monetary damages against the officials in their individual capacities under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, or RLUIPA. Landor is a devout Rastafarian who pledged to "let the locks of the hair of his head grow," known as the Nazarite Vow. Landor upheld that pledge for nearly 20 years, until he was nearly finished with a five-month prison sentence in Louisiana. For the first four months of his incarceration, the two facilities where Landor was housed allowed him to keep his hair long or under a "rastacap." But that changed after Landor was transferred to the Raymond Laborde Correctional Center for the final three weeks of his sentence. Once there, Landor told an intake guard that he was a practicing Rastafarian and handed over proof of his religious accommodations, as well as a copy of a 2017 decision from the 5th Circuit that found Louisiana's policy of cutting Rastafarians' hair violated RLUIPA, according to court filings. But two guards ultimately handcuffed Landor to a chair, held him down and had his head shaved, according to papers filed with the Supreme Court. Landor filed a lawsuit against the prison officials after he was released and brought numerous claims, including under the RLUIPA. But a federal judge agreed to dismiss the case, finding that the law does not allow for damages against individual state officials. A three-judge panel of judges on the 5th Circuit affirmed that decision, ruling that while it "emphatically" condemned Landor's treatment, a prior decision in the circuit required it to hold that he could not seek money damages from officials in their individual capacities for violations of RLUIPA. The full 5th Circuit refused to reconsider the case, with 11 judges voting not to rehear it and six voting in favor. The case follows a Supreme Court decision from December 2020 in which it unanimously held that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, RLUIPA's sister statute, allows litigants to obtain money damages against federal officials in their individual capacities. Lawyers for Landor argued that Congress enacted the two laws to provide meaningful protection for religious liberty, and denying litigants the opportunity to seek damages for violations of RLUIPA would render that promise empty. Louisiana officials said in court papers that the allegations raised in Landor's appeal are "antithetical to religious freedom and fair treatment of state prisoners," and condemned them "in the strongest possible terms." But they urged the Supreme Court to turn away his appeal and said the state amended its prison grooming policy to prevent other inmates from being treated as Landor was. The justices will hear arguments in its next term, which begins in October, with a decision expected by the summer of 2026.
Associated Press
11 hours ago
- Politics
- Associated Press
Supreme Court will hear case of Rastafarian whose dreadlocks were shaved by Louisiana prison guards
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear the appeal of a former Louisiana prison inmate whose dreadlocks were cut off by prison guards in violation of his religious beliefs. The justices will review an appellate ruling that held that the former inmate, Damon Landor, could not sue prison officials for money damages under a federal law aimed at protecting prisoners' religious rights. Landor, an adherent of the Rastafari religion, even carried a copy of a ruling by the appeals court in another inmate's case holding that cutting religious prisoners' dreadlocks violates the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. Landor hadn't cut his hair in nearly two decades when he entered Louisiana's prison system in 2020 on a five-month sentence. At his first two stops, officials respected his beliefs. But things changed when he got to the Raymond Laborde Correctional Center in Cottonport, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) northwest of Baton Rouge, for the final three weeks of his term. A prison guard took the copy of the ruling Landor carried and tossed it in the trash, according to court records. Then the warden ordered guards to cut his dreadlocks. While two guards restrained him, a third shaved his head to the scalp, the records show. Landor sued after his release, but lower courts dismissed the case. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lamented Landor's treatment but said the law doesn't allow him to hold prison officials liable for damages. The Supreme Court will hear arguments in the fall. Landor's lawyers argue that the court should be guided by its decision in 2021 allowing Muslim men to sue over their inclusion on the FBI's no-fly list under a sister statute, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. President Donald Trump's Republican administration filed a brief supporting Landor's right to sue and urged the court to hear the case. Louisiana asked the justices to reject the appeal, even as it acknowledged Landor's mistreatment. Lawyers for the state wrote that 'the state has amended its prison grooming policy to ensure that nothing like petitioner's alleged experience can occur.' The Rastafari faith is rooted in 1930s Jamaica, growing as a response by Black people to white colonial oppression. Its beliefs are a melding of Old Testament teachings and a desire to return to Africa. Its message was spread across the world in the 1970s by Jamaican music icons Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, two of the faith's most famous exponents. The case is Landor v. Louisiana Department of Corrections, 23-1197.
