The United States Supreme Court accepted on Monday to examine the case of A Rastafari who forcibly cut the dreadlocks that reached his knees when he was in jail.
Damon Landor requests permission to demand for damages to officials of the Louisiana Correctional Department, in southern United States, for violating their religious rights.
Landor, who had almost two decades, letting his hair grow, he turned in 2020 the last three weeks of a five -month sentence for drug possession when his hair was cut.
Landor presented to the prison guards a copy of a judicial judgment of 2017 in which it was claimed that Rastafaris should be allowed to maintain their dreadlocks due to their religious beliefs.
A prison guard threw the document, handcuffed to a chair and razed his head, according to judicial records.
A Court of Appeals condemned the “atrocious” treatment that Landor received, but ruled that he cannot sue prison officials for damages.
Louisiana’s attorney general, Elizabeth Murrill, acknowledged in a letter filed before the Supreme Court that the treatment was contrary to ethics and reported that in Louisiana the regulations have been modified so that “nothing similar can happen” in the future.
But the Federal Law does not allow “monetary damage against a state official defendant individually,” he added.
The Supreme Court will listen to the oral arguments of the case from October.
Rastafaris let their hair grow, normally in dreadlocks, as part of their beliefs. The late reggae singer Bob Marley popularized this spiritual movement originally from Jamaica.
Source: Ambito
