Louisiana Department of Corrections, et al. v. Christopher Jerome Ware

Respondent Christopher Ware, a Louisiana state prison inmate convicted of sexual battery, is a Rastafarian who wears his hair in “dreadlocks that fall past his shoulders” for religious reasons. App. 1. Ware has vowed not to cut or style his dreadlocks and intends to grow them to an indefinite size, thickness, and length over his 40-year sentence. App. 52. Diverging from the Eleventh Circuit’s decision in Knight v. Thompson, 796 F.3d 1289 (11th Cir. 2015), a Fifth Circuit panel held that the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000cc et seq. (“RLUIPA”), forbids Petitioner Louisiana Department of Corrections from requiring Ware to cut his hair under established inmate grooming policies. The question presented is: Does RLUIPA require a state prison to allow religious prisoners to wear dreadlocks of unlimited size, thickness, and length?