Oct. 6 (UPI) -- The appeals of a Rastafarian who wants to sue correctional officers for forcibly shaving off his dreadlocks and a counselor who is challenging a ban on conversion therapy for minors are on the U.S. Supreme Court's docket for its 2025-26 term, which begins Monday.
Decisions by the justices on whether to grant review of other cases that impact religious liberty are pending.
When Damon Landor was serving a five-month sentence at a Louisiana prison in 2020, his dreadlocks were almost down to his knees. He had taken a Nazarite vow, the biblical oath taken by Samson that requires him to abstain from cutting his hair.
Landor came to the prison prepared with a copy of a 2017 decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that said Louisiana's policy of cutting the hair of Rastafarians violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.
The act prohibits regulations that impose a "substantial burden" on the religious exercise of persons confined to institutions.
