Update: Top court to hear arguments in dispute over Rastafarian’s forced haircut
Decision will affect ability of prisoners to apply federal religious-freedom law
There is currently no legal dispute over whether Damon Landor, a Rastafarian, was mistreated and had his religious rights violated when two Louisiana prison guards forcibly handcuffed him to a chair and cut off his knee-length hair in 2020. The question is whether he can successfully sue prison officials under the terms of a federal religious-freedom law.
And that will be the issue when the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments in the case of Landor v. Louisiana Department of Corrections and Public Safety on Nov. 10. Landor had sued for monetary damages under the terms of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, known as RLUIPA. The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of appeals found that Damon had been treated in an “egregious manner” but that there was no national precedent for allowing prison officials to be sued in their personal capacity as is the case with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, even though the relevant portions of the two laws are written identically.
The ruling that Landor and his attorneys are asking the Supreme Court to make is fairly technical and does not involve interpreting the First Amendment, which protects religious rights. The dispute is over which remedies are available under RLUIPA when prisoners’ religious rights are violated.
It has been a common practice nationally for prisoners to be allowed to groom themselves according to their religious beliefs. And Landor in fact had been able to keep his long hair, unshorn for 20 years, for five months in prison without incident. It wasn’t until he was transfered to the Raymond Laborde Correctional Center in Cottonport, La., that the incident occurred — with three weeks remaining in his sentence.
In their written argument to the high court, Landor’s attorneys emphasize the importance of allowing prisoners to sue for damages as they often do not have time to seek other legal remedies while they are still in prison:
Damages are particularly critical under RLUIPA. Not only do many cases involve one-time incidents that can be remedied only via damages, but also claims for prospective relief become moot when an incarcerated person is released or transferred. ...
Again, this case provides a stark example. Landor had a short sentence (five months), he was transferred twice, and the assault occurred with only a few weeks remaining on his sentence. ... After assaulting him, respondents held Landor in lockdown for the remainder of his term and denied him a grievance form, effectively preventing him from suing until after he was released — at which point any prospective relief was moot.
Louisiana has not yet filed its formal response to Landor’s arguments.
Landor has gained support from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and the American Center for Law and Justice. Both organizations are known for their support of conservative Christian legal causes, although it is not unusual for them to represent persons with non-Christian beliefs. The two filed friend-of-the-court legal briefs in support of Landor last week.
Original article (May 20, 2024): Rastafarian who had his hair forcibly cut in prison takes dispute to Supreme Court
Damon Landor’s rights were violated in a “in a stark and egregious manner” when Louisiana prison guards physically forced him to have his hair cut in 2020, a majority of the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals judges told him in a Feb. 5 decision. But that same majority saw itself as powerless to award him monetary damages, agreeing that “only the Supreme Court can answer” whether that is legally possible.
So Landor is trying to make sure that happens. His attorneys filed papers earlier this month taking his dispute to the U.S. Supreme Court, which, if it agrees to hear the case, will decide on how a federal religious-freedom law designed to protect prisoners should be interpreted.
The case is Damon Landor v. Louisiana Department of Corrections and Public Safety.
The legal issue the high court is being asked to decide is whether the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act allows a person (often a prisoner) harmed under the terms of the act to sue for damages the culpable public officials in their personal capacity.
RLIUPA is a law passed by Congress in 2000 to correct some deficiencies in the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Rastafari is an Abrahamic religion that originated in Jamaica about a century ago. As a Rastafarian, Landor took what is known as the Nazarite vow1 not to cut his hair. In a decision last year, this is how a panel of the appeals court described the sequence of events leading to the lawsuit:
Landor was incarcerated in 2020. During his brief stint in prison, Landor was primarily housed at two facilities, St. Tammany Parish Detention Center and LaSalle Correctional Center. Both stays were relatively uneventful — each facility respected Landor’s vow and allowed him to either wear his hair long or to keep it under a “rastacap.” LaSalle even went as far as to voluntarily2 amend its grooming policy to allow Landor to keep his dreads. Then, after five peaceful months — and with only three weeks left in his sentence — Landor was transferred to RLCC [the Raymond Laborde Correctional Center].
Upon arrival, Landor was met by an intake guard. Acting preemptively, Landor explained that he was a practicing Rastafarian and provided proof of past religious accommodations. And, amazingly, Landor also handed the guard a copy of our decision in Ware v. Louisiana Department of Corrections, 866 F.3d 263 (5th Cir. 2017), which held that Louisiana’s policy of cutting the hair of Rastafarians violated RLUIPA. Unmoved by our caselaw, the guard threw Landor’s papers in the trash and summoned RLCC’s warden, Marcus Myers. When Myers arrived, he demanded Landor hand over documentation from his sentencing judge that corroborated his religious beliefs. When Landor couldn’t instantly meet that demand, two guards carried him into another room, handcuffed him to a chair, held him down, and shaved his head.
The panel “emphatically” (its word) condemned the treatment that Landor endured. But it said it was bound by a precedent that the appeals court set in an unrelated case in 2009.
There is no way to know how soon the Supreme Court will decide whether to hear the case.
See Numbers 6:5. The most famous person associated with the Nazirite vow is Samson from the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament. According to Judges, Samson lost his immense strength after his hair was cut as a result of betrayal by a woman he loved, Delilah.
Emphasis in original.