Landor v. Louisiana Dept of Corrections and Public Safety · ¶96

Recall that the individuals RLUIPA exposes to liability are state prison officials. These are agents of the State who voluntarily seek the State’s employ and wield its power. The State—the funding recipient—thus exercises authority over them in two ways. As their employer, the State can place conditions on their employment. And as a sovereign, the State can govern their behavior. Under our precedents, either should have sufficed. With both, this is an easy case. Start with Dole itself. Dole upheld a federal law conditioning highway funding on States raising the legal age for purchasing or publicly possessing alcohol—that is, on States forbidding a category of behavior for young adults. 483 U. S., at 205. Underage drinkers are not the Federal Government’s contracting partners. Cf. id., at 218 (O’Connor, J., dissenting) (arguing that the law was unconstitutional because it was not “a…

slip opinion, revised 6/28/26
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