Landor v. Louisiana Dept of Corrections and Public Safety · ¶28

To be sure, Mr. Landor and the dissent identify ways in which Congress could have lawfully imposed personal liability on the individual defendants. For example, Congress could have said that, as a condition of federal funding to LDOC, its officers had to agree to enter separate contracts with the federal government consenting to answer suits under RLUIPA. Or Congress might have conditioned its funds on Louisiana’s agreement to exercise its own regulatory powers to adopt a state law cause of action enforceable against LDOC officers who violate RLUIPA. Brief for Petitioner 47; cf. post, at 23–24. But these untapped possibilities only underscore Mr. Landor’s bind. The first hypothetical has what this case does not, namely, an agreement between the federal government and the defendants. And in the second hypothetical, again unlike this case, the State would have exercised its own regulatory…

slip opinion, revised 6/28/26
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