(The Center Square) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday decided to consider a case in which a Rastafarian inmate is suing intake officers for shaving his dreadlocks in violation of his religious rights.
The case of former Louisiana inmate Damon Landor will determine if a government employee, rather than the government entity they are employed by, can be held liable for damages relating to a religious liberty lawsuit.
While a lower court condemned the actions of the prison guards, it determined that Landor could not sue them for damages because the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA) did not allow for the guards to be sued as individuals.
Weeks away from completing his five-month sentence for drug possession in 2020, Landor was transferred to a different prison. When intake officers attempted to shave his dreadlocks, Landor showed them a copy of a 2017 appeals court ruling that permitted prisoners to keep their dreadlocks.
The prison officers threw the paper in a trash can and proceeded in shaving the dreadlocks Landor had been growing for 20 years in accordance with his Rastafari faith.
In support of Landor, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to take up the case.
It is the latest in a slew of religious rights cases that have caught the eye of the justices. If the court rules in Landor’s favor, this will set a future precedent to allow for inmates to sue government officials as individuals under RLUIPA.
Landor’s case will be heard during the court’s next term beginning in October.
The nation’s top court also decided on Monday that it would not review the case of a Mississippi man who is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday.
Richard Jordan has been on death row for 48 years for the kidnapping and murder of Edwina Marter. Jordan maintains that his post-traumatic stress disorder, a result of his time serving in Vietnam, was a factor in his actions.
The Supreme Court has still not released decisions for 10 cases in the current term. The most notable of these includes a ruling on President Donald Trump’s executive order banning birthright citizenship.
The court is expected to decide on the remaining cases by early July at the latest.
