Supreme Court to hear case of Rastafarian man seeking to sue prison officials for cutting his dreadlocks

Source: CNN Politics

PUBLISHED Nov 8, 2025, 8:00 AM ET


Two things went very wrong when Damon Landor, a devout Rastafarian, was transferred to a prison in central Louisiana five years ago. The first is that prison guards handcuffed Landor to a chair and shaved off the knee-length dreadlocks he had grown over nearly two decades. The second is that, minutes earlier, guards took a court decision requiring prisons to allow dreadlocks for Rastafarians and tossed it into the trash.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments in an important religious rights case Monday that will decide whether Landor – and other prisoners whose beliefs are violated – may sue prison officials for damages. “In an instant, they stripped Landor of decades of consistent religious practice and a defining feature of his identity,” his lawyers said in written arguments this year. “That is shocking, offensive, and lawless.”

Few cases arrive at the Supreme Court with a set of facts and a legal question more tailor-made for a conservative 6-3 majority that has in recent years consistently backed religious claims. Even the Louisiana officials opposing Landor’s case have condemned how he was treated.

In a similar case just five years ago, the court ruled 8-0 in favor of a group of Muslim Americans who said federal agents had placed them on a no-fly list because they refused to act as informants. But the question for the justices is not whether Landor’s head should have been shaved, but rather whether he can claim money damages.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/08/politics/supreme-court-rastafarian-man-dreadlocks