When Louisiana prison guards told a newly arrived Rastafarian inmate named Damon Landor that he was required to cut off the knee-length dreadlocks that he had been growing for decades as part of his religious practice, Landor produced a copy of a three-year-old decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, which held that the state's prison grooming policy, which prohibited dreadlocks, was illegal as applied to Rastafarians under the terms of the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000.
But instead of adhering to the 5th Circuit's unambiguous judgment, the guards threw Landor's copy of that ruling in the trash (literally), handcuffed him to a chair, and forcibly shaved his head.
Now, Landor is fighting for his right to hold those prison officials individually liable for their conduct. This fall, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in his case. The stakes are high not only for religious liberty, but also for the crucial importance of imposing greater accountability on rights-violating government agents.
