Supreme Court rules Rastafari man can't sue Louisiana prison officials who cut his dreadlocks

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. Supreme Court Republicans invent bizarre rule to deny a remedy to Rastafarian whose rights were egregiously violated

In a 6-to-3 vote dividing the court along ideological lines, the majority said federal law did not allow the prisoner, Damon Landor, to sue individual guards in their private capacity for violating his religious beliefs.

Justice Neil M. Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion, saying there were limits to Congress’s power to attach strings to the federal money given to state institutions like the Louisiana prison where Mr. Landor was held. The three liberal justices dissented, warning that the court’s decision would leave few options for state prisoners whose religious rights were violated.
...
The decision was a departure from a series of Supreme Court rulings in recent years that have repeatedly bolstered religious rights. In 2022, the court sided with a Texas death row inmate who wanted his pastor to touch him and pray aloud at the time of his execution. That same year, the court said a high school football coach had a constitutional right to pray at the 50-yard line after his team’s games.

The Trump administration and lawyers for the former inmate, Mr. Landor, had urged the Supreme Court to allow his lawsuit to proceed.

Yes, the Neoconfederate Six got to the right of the Trump administration on this. I recommend Jackson’s dissent in its entirety, but the bottom line:




It’s a particular thumb in the eye for Roberts to assign the opinion to Gorsuch, who authored the opinion granting the expansive religious freedom claim brought by a Christian based on a completely fraudulent set of facts. But it really underscores who gets a favorable hearing for their asserted rights and who doesn’t.

https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2026/06/supreme-court-republicans-invent-bizarre-rule-to-deny-a-remedy-to-rastafarian-whose-rights-were-egregiously-violated