Shaved bald: A Rastafari fight for justice at Supreme Court

[ad_1] When the nation’s highest courtroom thought-about its first-ever case involving Rastafari this week, not one of the Supreme Court docket 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 spiritual freedom behind bars was a milestone many locally stated highlights an extended 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 generally known as 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. Court docket of Appeals for Fifth Circuit

The Rastafari faith, originating in Nineteen 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 artificial with the almighty," stated Ziah Ayubu, a religious Rastafarian and reggae artist from Silver Spring, Maryland, who's intently following the Landor case. "I see [dreadlocks] as my religious 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 spiritual exemption to maintain his dreadlocks.

U.S. Court docket 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 spiritual rights, however the damages claims had been tossed out by a federal courtroom.

"After I was strapped down and shaved, it felt like I used to be raped," Landor stated in a press release to ABC. "And the guards, they only didn’t care. They are going to deal with you any type of approach. They knew higher than to chop my hair, however they did it anyway. That’s what they do. They had 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 spiritual follow -- corresponding to a Rastafarian’s dreadlocks -- until it might probably show a "compelling state curiosity."

However there was no authorized consensus on whether or not a prisoner whose rights had been allegedly violated beneath the regulation can sue particular person jail officers for damages in federal courtroom. The U.S. Supreme Court docket is poised to make clear.

"The regulation requires jail officers to respect the spiritual practices of people who find themselves incarcerated. However with out damages, the regulation has no enamel," stated Landor’s lawyer, Zach Tripp. "It's a proper with no treatment, and jail officers can ignore it with impunity. No damages means no accountability."

Louisiana Legal professional Common 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.

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Louisiana argues state jail officers have immunity it doesn't matter what.

"We help the rules behind protections of spiritual freedom and the legal guidelines which were enacted each by Congress and our state," Louisiana Legal professional Common Liz Murrill advised ABC Information. "However in a jail setting, this turns into much more sophisticated. It may crush your entire state price range if we had been subjected to damages in a scenario like this."

Civil rights advocates and different alleged victims of discrimination towards Rastafarians say there may be an pressing want for the Supreme Court docket to present victims of spiritual discrimination a transparent pathway to financial accountability.

"I simply want that no one has to undergo what I went by," stated 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 provided no exceptions for Rastafarians.

Dreadlocks are thought-about a bodily manifestation of a religious Rastafarian’s dedication to god.

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"Being in isolation, you get out possibly two or 3 times every week. They place you in a canine cage and name that recreation," Tafari advised ABC Information.

Tafari, who was launched in 2014, tried to sue for damages beneath federal regulation, however bought nowhere.

"There have been instances after I was in deep despair, considered committing suicide, that side was there as properly. Nevertheless it's my religion that stored me going," he stated.

In 2018, Thomas Walker, a Rastafarian in an Illinois state jail, was compelled to chop his dreadlocks for what officers claimed had 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 spiritual freedom after the forcible slicing of a Rastafarian inmate’s dreadlocks.

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"Justice is making you complete to some extent within the type of compensatory damages and within the type of cash," stated 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're going to should pay any individual cash."

Practically 600 grievances associated to a number of types of spiritual follow had been filed in chosen federal prisons between 2017 and 2023, in accordance with a 2025 report from the U.S. Fee on Civil Rights. However solely a type of resulted in a good consequence for the prisoner -- what advocates say is additional proof of restricted respect for spiritual freedom behind bars.

Charles Value, a professor of anthropology on the College of North Carolina, focuses on Rastafarian historical past and tradition.

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There isn't any financial sum that may undo the hurt completed by forcibly shaving somebody’s head of dreadlocks," stated Charles Value, a Rastafarian scholar on the College of North Carolina. "However on the identical 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 Court docket case will assist change the best way Rastafarians and their sacred hair are seen by society.

"Rising up within the 70s and 80s, , in the event that they put you in jail, you would assure that they’re going to chop your locks off," he stated. "That is 2025, I believed all of that was over and completed."

Reggae artist Bob Marley helped Rastafarian beliefs and tradition go mainstream within the Nineteen Seventies.

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He stated the group 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 stated.

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 resolve whether or not federal regulation permits particular person damages fits towards jail officers for alleged spiritual rights violations by the top of June 2026.