Landor v. Louisiana Dept of Corrections and Public Safety · ¶122

The emptiness of the majority’s formalism is further illustrated by the parade of horribles it trots out. The majority warns that, if RLUIPA’s individual-capacity damages provision is constitutional, Congress could subject college coaches to liability if they refuse “to permit transgender athletes to play women’s sports,” or make doctors personally liable if they “administe[r] certain vaccines to children.” Ante, at 13. What the majority intends by these examples is not clear. Congress could of course impose these conditions on the colleges and medical practices themselves, assuming they receive federal funds and the laws are otherwise constitutional and not coercive. Congress’s reach thus remains the same either way; all that changes is whether noncompliant coaches and doctors lose their jobs (in the majority’s world) or become liable in damages (in Congress’s, and therefore mine).

slip opinion, revised 6/28/26
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