ACLU sues Iowa over Satanic Temple's exclusion from Capitol holiday events

The ACLU of Iowa filed a federal lawsuit Aug. 13 on behalf of The Satanic Temple (TST), alleging state officials violated the group's constitutional rights by repeatedly refusing to let it hold a holiday event in the Iowa Capitol rotunda on the same terms as other religious and civic groups.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the temple and Mortimer Adramelech, identified by the ACLU as a Minister of Satan of the Iowa congregation of TST, names Department of Administrative Services Director Mark Campbell, former Director Adam Steen, and the department itself as defendants. It asks the court to find that the denials violated the group's rights to free speech, free exercise of religion, and equal protection under the First and Fourteenth Amendments, as well as the Iowa Civil Rights Act and the state's Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The suit seeks an order allowing the temple to hold its event this December and unspecified damages.

The dispute traces back to December 2023, when the state permitted the temple to install a display featuring a statue of the goat-headed idol Baphomet in the rotunda alongside a Christian Nativity scene. A Mississippi Navy veteran, Michael Cassidy, beheaded the statue weeks later. Cassidy was initially charged with a hate-crime-enhanced felony but pleaded guilty to a reduced misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to probation and $855 fine.

As CatholicVote reported, Cassidy told the Republic Sentinel after his actions at the capitol, “I saw this blasphemous statue and was outraged. My conscience is held captive to the word of God, not to bureaucratic decree. And so I acted.”

He added, “The world may tell Christians to submissively accept the legitimization of Satan, but none of the founders would have considered government sanction of Satanic altars inside Capitol buildings as protected by the First Amendment.” 

State officials denied the temple's applications for similar events in 2024, 2025, and 2026, according to the lawsuit. Gov. Kim Reynolds said of the 2024 denial that the proposed event “would have been harmful to minors.” The Satanic Temple event would have included caroling, ornament-making and a Krampus costume contest, according to ACLU. In its denial of the event the state said that the Krampus would be hitting children with sticks, an allegation the organizers denied.

In European folklore, Krampus is a horned, half-goat, half-demon figure who accompanies St. Nicholas during the winter season to punish misbehaving children, in contrast to St. Nicholas' rewarding well-behaved ones. 

"The Constitution protects unpopular viewpoints from political power, not the other way around," Matt Kezhaya, the temple's general counsel, said in a statement announcing the suit.

ACLU of Iowa legal director Rita Bettis Austen said the government should not "favor one religious belief over another" once it opens a space like the rotunda to religious displays. The suit follows three discrimination complaints the ACLU has filed with the state civil rights office since 2024; one resulted in a finding of probable cause, she said.

The fight over the event highlights the tightrope that legislators walk in upholding religious freedom, illustrated in comments from State Representative Jon Dunwell. A Christian pastor and legislator, Dunwell said in a Dec. 8, 2023, X post, “as a follower of Christ, I certainly find a display from the Satanic Temple objectionable.” At the same time, Dunwell emphasized, “I don’t want the state evaluating and making determinations about religions. I am guided by the First Amendment of the US Constitution.”

Neither the governor's office nor the Department of Administrative Services has publicly responded to the lawsuit.