Chief District Judge Stephanie M. Rose ordered Iowa officials to let the Satanic Temple Iowa hold a holiday event in the State Capitol rotunda. The state must approve the application within seven days, after years in which Iowa leaders blocked the group’s holiday observances.
Rose said the Satanic Temple was likely to succeed on its free speech claim. The event would go forward in the same public space that already includes a Christmas tree and other holiday observances.
Stephanie M. Rose ruling
The order directs the current director of the Iowa Department of Administrative Services to approve the group’s application. Rose also said the department may impose the same conditions it applies to other events, which gives the state room to manage the space without shutting the event down.
That matters because the event was not a private gathering. It was set to take place in the rotunda, a public part of the State Capitol where holiday observances already appear during the season. The judge’s order keeps the state’s event rules in place, but it bars a blanket rejection of this application.
Iowa objection at the Capitol
The Satanic Temple and the leader of its Iowa organization sued the state in federal court in August. The group, founded in 2013, says it does not believe in Satan and describes itself as a non-theistic religious organization that advocates for secularism. It is separate from the Church of Satan.
The group said its holiday event would include Krampus costumes, caroling, coloring for kids, and ornament-making. Matt Kezhaya, the group’s attorney, said, “This was always going to be a family-friendly event.”
Iowa leaders had pointed to policies meant to protect children who may be present in the public space. They also raised concern about the costumes’ sticks, saying they could be used as weapons. Rose wrote that concern that Krampus may frighten children is “not a permissible basis for excluding speech,” and that concern over sticks “cannot justify denying the entire event.”
Seven-day approval deadline
The ruling gives Iowa a short compliance window and leaves the state with a choice about the next procedural step. The state said it intended to appeal, while the order requires the application to be approved first and places the event back inside the State Capitol process rather than outside it.
Members of the Satanic Temple celebrated the ruling, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa is representing the religious organization. Kezhaya said, “Too often, fear or misunderstanding of the ‘other’ is amplified by petty governmental bureaucrats looking to score cheap political points by portraying unfamiliar beliefs as ‘dangerous,’” as the dispute now moves into the appeal phase and Iowa has to decide whether to challenge the order or carry it out under the same event conditions it applies to others.
