The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled against a devout Rastafarian who attempted to sue prison officials for holding him down and cutting his dreadlocks. The decision, written by Justice Neil Gorsuch for a 6-3 court, marks a rare instance in which the conservative majority sided against a religious claim.

Background of the Case

Damon Landor, the Rastafarian at the center of the case, had a few weeks left in his sentence for drug possession when guards at a Louisiana prison handcuffed him to a chair and shaved off the knee-length dreadlocks he had grown over nearly two decades. Landor had previously taken a promise known as the Nazarite vow to not cut his hair.

Landor’s case at the Supreme Court rested on the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, or RLUIPA. Congress passed that law to protect the religious rights of prisoners. However, the court ruled that the man at the center of the case could not sue state officials over his treatment because local officials were not aware of the details of the federal law.

Implications of the Decision

The decision may make it harder for believers of other faiths to enforce federal religious protections in prison. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, writing for the court’s three liberals, criticized the majority for what she saw as a decision to weaken the federal law under which Landor was attempting to sue.

The court’s move, Jackson wrote, will make it much more difficult for prisoners to drag officials to court over allegations that their rights have been impugned. Rachel Laser, the president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, described the decision as hypocritical.

Original reporting: KEYT (Ventura/Santa Barbara) — read the source article.