Read the court documents:
- Complaint
- Plaintiffs' Motion For Preliminary Injunction
- Brief in Support of Plaintiffs' Motion For Preliminary Injunction
- Exhibits
- Civil Rights Complaint
For three years, Iowa has made its State Capitol available for religious holiday events while denying members of The Satanic Temple (TST) Iowa the same access. Today, TST and TST Iowa’s Minister Mortimer Adramelech have asked a federal court to intervene, alleging that state officials violated their rights to religious exercise, free speech, and equal protection by repeatedly denying TST Iowa members access to a public forum available to other religious groups. The lawsuit was filed by the ACLU of Iowa, with Hasso & Wilson Law Firm and Kezhaya Law PLC serving as co-counsel.
In December 2023, the State approved TST Iowa’s application for a holiday display in the Capitol Rotunda, where it stood alongside a Christian Nativity and other seasonal displays. That display remained in place until a Mississippi man flew to Iowa to destroy it. The vandal was arrested and criminally charged for the religiously motivated attack. His crowdfunding campaign later raised more than $134,000 for his legal defense with support from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Matt Walsh of The Daily Wire, and Turning Point USA. Several Iowa officials, meanwhile, reserved their condemnation not for the destruction of a lawful religious display in the State Capitol, but for the TST Iowa members who had exercised their right to place it there.
TST Iowa applied to hold a family-friendly holiday event in the Capitol Rotunda the following year, featuring carols, coloring pages, ornament-making, and a Krampus costume contest. These common holiday activities were proposed to take place in a public space already available to other religious groups. Iowa denied the application. TST Iowa continued to request access to the Capitol in 2025 and 2026, encountering further denials, delays, and unanswered communications from state officials.
Iowa will now have to defend its treatment of TST members in federal court. This lawsuit seeks damages for past violations and an order allowing TST Iowa to hold its holiday event at the Capitol this December. The Satanic Temple has consistently challenged government officials who deny our members the civil rights enjoyed by other religious communities, and Iowa is no exception. Constitutional protections do not diminish when Satanists exercise them, and we intend to hold the State of Iowa to its obligation to treat our members equally under the law.
