Rastafarian inmate Damon Landor’s battle for religious freedom within Louisiana’s prison system has sparked a legal saga reaching the nation’s highest court.
Initially incarcerated for drug possession, Landor faced a harrowing ordeal when, despite federal protections for his faith’s dreadlocks – a copy of a 2017 judicial decision from a unanimous three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said that Rastafarian inmates in Louisiana must be allowed to keep their dreadlocks under a 2000 federal law protecting prisoners’ religious freedom – prison guards forcibly shaved his head at the Raymond Laborde Correctional Center.
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Landor’s subsequent legal pursuit, anchored in the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, encountered a setback at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which acknowledged his mistreatment but denied him monetary recourse.
Seeking justice, Landor’s case, Landor v. Louisiana Department of Corrections and Public Safety, No. 23-1197, now stands before the Supreme Court. His plea for financial redress hinges on a significant legal distinction between the 2000 law, applicable to states, and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993.
Judge Edith Brown Clement wrote, “Prison officials knowingly 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. Landor clearly suffered a grave legal wrong.”
While Landor’s plight has exposed systemic violations endured by Rastafarians in Louisiana, the resolution of his case holds broader implications for safeguarding religious liberties within the correctional system. With Landor’s dreadlocks emblematic of his identity and faith, the outcome resonates beyond his personal quest for justice, serving as a crucial test of the law’s efficacy in protecting marginalized religious beliefs.
