May

Oregon state prisoner David May appeals the entry of summary judgment for George Baldwin, the Superintendent at the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution (“EOCI”), and other officials at EOCI (collectively, the “prison officials”) in his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action seeking damages and declaratory and injunctive relief. May contends that, under the standards mandated by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (“RFRA”), 42 U.S.C. § 2000bb-l (1994), the prison officials violated his free exercise rights when they required him to unbraid his dreadlocks for a search. In addition, May cites further violations of his First, Fourth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm the grant of summary judgment for the prison officials.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

May practices Rastafarianism, a Christianity-based religion that mandates certain lifestyle practices derived from the Bible. In accordance with the tenets of his religion, May wears his hair in the uncut, uncombed style known as dreadlocks. The prison officials neither contest the sincerity of May’s religious beliefs nor dispute that maintaining dreadlocks forms a…