When the nation’s highest courtroom thought of its first-ever case involving Rastafari this week, not one of the Supreme Courtroom justices or attorneys concerned named the minority religion, a lot much less raised its tenets or the sacred significance of dreadlocks.
Nonetheless, for religious Rastafarians the landmark authorized battle over defending non secular freedom behind bars was a milestone many in the neighborhood mentioned highlights a protracted historical past of discrimination and alleged lack of accountability.
On the coronary heart of the case is Damon Landor of Louisiana, a self-described religious Rastafarian, who had grown his hair uncut for nearly 20 years as a part of a promise in his religion often called the Nazarite Vow.
Damon Landor’s dreadlocks had been rising for 20 years when he was incarcerated in a Louisiana state jail for a 5-month sentence for a drug offence.
U.S. Courtroom of Appeals for Fifth Circuit
The Rastafari faith, originating in Thirties Jamaica, acknowledges an Ethiopian messiah and teachings of justice, righteousness, and pure dwelling. Dreadlocks are probably the most bodily manifestation of a Rasta’s beliefs.
“It’s like a sacred covenant that the Rasta synthetic with the almighty,” mentioned Ziah Ayubu, a religious Rastafarian and reggae artist from Silver Spring, Maryland, who’s intently following the Landor case. “I see [dreadlocks] as my non secular antennas.”
When Landor arrived on the Raymond Laborde Correctional Heart to serve out the ultimate three weeks of a five-month sentence in 2023, then-Warden Marcus Myers and state corrections officers allegedly handcuffed him to a chair and forcibly shaved him bald.
Damon Landor claims Louisiana jail guards forcibly shaved him bald regardless of his claims of a Rastafarian non secular exemption to maintain his dreadlocks.
U.S. Courtroom of Appeals for Fifth Circuit
His request for a spiritual exemption to maintain his dreadlocks was flatly dismissed. Landor later tried to sue over an alleged violation of his non secular rights, however the damages claims have been tossed out by a federal courtroom.
“Once I was strapped down and shaved, it felt like I used to be raped,” Landor mentioned in an announcement to ABC. “And the guards, they simply didn’t care. They are going to deal with you any form of method. They knew higher than to chop my hair, however they did it anyway. That’s what they do. They have been simply utilizing their authority.”
Marcus Myers was warden of the Raymond Laborde Correctional Heart when Damon Landor was an inmate.
Louisiana Division of Corrections & Public Security/Fb
In 2000, Congress enacted the Spiritual Land Use and Incarcerated Individuals Act to explicitly require states with federally-funded prisons to accommodate honest non secular observe — resembling a Rastafarian’s dreadlocks — until it might show a “compelling state curiosity.”
However there was no authorized consensus on whether or not a prisoner whose rights have been allegedly violated underneath the legislation can sue particular person jail officers for damages in federal courtroom. The U.S. Supreme Courtroom is poised to make clear.
“The legislation requires jail officers to respect the non secular practices of people who find themselves incarcerated. However with out damages, the legislation has no tooth,” mentioned Landor’s lawyer, Zach Tripp. “It’s a proper with out a treatment, and jail officers can ignore it with impunity. No damages means no accountability.”
Louisiana Lawyer Normal Liz Murrill argues state jail officers shouldn’t be topic to damages lawsuits over alleged violations of the Spiritual Land Use and Incarcerated Individuals Act.
ABC Information
Louisiana argues state jail officers have immunity it doesn’t matter what.
“We assist the rules behind protections of non secular freedom and the legal guidelines which were enacted each by Congress and our state,” Louisiana Lawyer Normal Liz Murrill instructed ABC Information. “However in a jail setting, this turns into much more difficult. It might crush the complete state price range if we have been subjected to damages in a state of affairs like this.”
Civil rights advocates and different alleged victims of discrimination towards Rastafarians say there’s an pressing want for the Supreme Courtroom to present victims of non secular discrimination a transparent pathway to financial accountability.
“I simply want that no person has to undergo what I went by means of,” mentioned Solomon Tafari, a Virginia man who spent a decade in solitary confinement in state jail as a result of he refused to chop his dreadlocks. The state’s inmate grooming coverage supplied no exceptions for Rastafarians.
Dreadlocks are thought of a bodily manifestation of a religious Rastafarian’s dedication to god.
ABC Information
“Being in isolation, you get out perhaps two or thrice per week. They place you in a canine cage and name that recreation,” Tafari instructed ABC Information.
Tafari, who was launched in 2014, tried to sue for damages underneath federal legislation, however obtained nowhere.
“There have been occasions once I was in deep despair, considered committing suicide, that facet was there as nicely. Nevertheless it’s my religion that stored me going,” he mentioned.
In 2018, Thomas Walker, a Rastafarian in an Illinois state jail, was pressured to chop his dreadlocks for what officers claimed have been safety causes. The identical factor occurred to Carlos Thurman in Kentucky in 2022, regardless of his plea for a Rastafarian exemption. The state later modified its coverage and settled the case.
Corey Shapiro, authorized director for the ACLU of Kentucky, sued state corrections officers in 2022 for alleged violations of non secular freedom after the forcible slicing of a Rastafarian inmate’s dreadlocks.
ABC Information
“Justice is making you entire to some extent within the type of compensatory damages and within the type of cash,” mentioned Thurman’s lawyer Corey Shapiro, the authorized director at ACLU of Kentucky. “Cash additionally serves as a deterrent, proper? Just like the Division of Corrections might imagine twice in the event that they know they will must pay someone cash.”
Practically 600 grievances associated to a number of types of non secular observe have been filed in chosen federal prisons between 2017 and 2023, in line with a 2025 report from the U.S. Fee on Civil Rights. However solely a kind of resulted in a good consequence for the prisoner — what advocates say is additional proof of restricted respect for non secular freedom behind bars.
Charles Worth, a professor of anthropology on the College of North Carolina, makes a speciality of Rastafarian historical past and tradition.
ABC Information
There isn’t any financial sum that may undo the hurt achieved by forcibly shaving somebody’s head of dreadlocks,” mentioned Charles Worth, a Rastafarian scholar on the College of North Carolina. “However on the similar time, what are the sorts of issues that the system does to acknowledge its wrongs? One of many issues that it does to acknowledge wrongs is to pay reparations or pay damages.”
Ayubu and members of his band, Proverbs, are praying the Supreme Courtroom case will assist change the way in which Rastafarians and their sacred hair are seen by society.
“Rising up within the 70s and 80s, you already know, in the event that they put you in jail, you can assure that they’re going to chop your locks off,” he mentioned. “That is 2025, I believed all of that was over and achieved.”
Reggae artist Bob Marley helped Rastafarian beliefs and tradition go mainstream within the Nineteen Seventies.
ABC Information
He mentioned the neighborhood of believers, estimated to complete a number of hundred thousand within the U.S., are hoping the justices will ship a change.
“We’re nonetheless right here, we’re nonetheless working, nonetheless loving one another and dwelling collectively,” Ayubu mentioned.
Ziah Ayubu of Silver Spring, Md., is a religious Rastafarian and founding father of the reggae band Proverbs.
ABC Information
The excessive courtroom is predicted to determine whether or not federal legislation permits particular person damages fits towards jail officers for alleged non secular rights violations by the tip of June 2026.
