Emblazoned at the top of the courthouse at One First Street are the words “equal justice under law.” On a cold morning last November, I sat through two hours of oral argument in Landor v. Louisiana Department of Corrections (2026) in that building. The case involved Damon Landor, an incarcerated Rastafarian in Louisiana who had undertaken the Nazarite Vow, a tenet of his religion requiring him to grow out his hair. The Court’s ultimate ruling against Landor surprised many commentators, and demonstrates the limits that overly strict textualism can place on constitutional liberties, and illustrates why Western principles of religious liberty and legal remedies must receive higher consideration.
Damon Landor was convicted of possessing meth in 2018. When he was transferred to a state correctional center, he planned ahead and brought a printed copy of a Fifth Circuit’s decision ruling that state policy of cutting prisoners’ hair violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons…
