The United States Supreme Court has handed down a ruling that blocks a Louisiana prisoner from suing the prison guards who forcibly shaved off his dreadlocks.
The case raised significant questions about the religious rights of incarcerated individuals. The prisoner, a Rastafarian whose faith holds dreadlocks as sacred, argued that guards violated his religious freedoms when they forcibly removed them.
However, the Court determined that the federal law designed to protect the religious rights of prisoners does not allow the inmate to pursue a lawsuit directly against the guards responsible for the act.
