State of Iowa Ordered to Allow The Satanic Temple Iowa Congregation to Hold its December 2026 Holiday Event

A media packet containing images of Satanic Temple Iowa events, legal documents, and headshots can be found here.

Des Moines, Iowa — Today, a federal court issued a preliminary injunction ordering Iowa state officials to allow The Satanic Temple Iowa (TST Iowa) to host its planned December 2026 family-friendly holiday event at the State Capitol.

Today’s injunction comes after a lawsuit was filed in August 2026 by the ACLU and other attorneys on behalf of the Satanic Temple Iowa after state officials repeatedly denied the group permission to have a family-friendly winter holiday event in the Iowa Capitol rotunda on the same basis as other religious and civic groups.

The preliminary injunction orders state officials to allow TST the same access to the Capitol rotunda as other groups while the lawsuit continues. Eventually, the plaintiffs hope the court will eventually issue a permanent injunction, declaratory relief, and damages when it reaches its final decision.

The plaintiffs in the case are TST and Mortimer Adramelech, Minister of Satan of the Iowa congregation of TST. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, and the plaintiffs are being represented by the ACLU of Iowa, Kezhaya Law PLC, and the Hasso & Wilson Law Firm as co-counsel.

Matt Kezhaya (pronounced Kez-EYE-ya), general counsel for TST, said, “Congregants of The Satanic Temple have every right to live their authentic religious identity in public, and are entitled to the same dignity and the same access to public spaces as members of more familiar traditions. 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.’ The tolerance protections in the First Amendment enforce our pluralistic society by generally prohibiting censorship, and doubly protecting religious expression from censorship.

“This was always going to be a family-friendly event. We proposed caroling, coloring pages, make-and-take ornaments, religious observance, and a costumed holiday figure. None of this became ‘harmful’ just because state officials disapproved of our chosen expression. And that is abundantly clear what happened. The district court correctly found that state officials “applied the harmful-to-minors rationale to disapprove of TST’s message, not to make a neutral judgment about safety,” Kezhaya said.

“That principle reaches beyond The Satanic Temple, and even beyond religious expression. When Iowa opened the Capitol rotunda for free speech and expression, it undertook an obligation to administer that public forum evenhandedly. Government officials do not get to selectively allow only ‘acceptable’ speech according to their whim as to which ideas are ‘acceptable’ and which are not,” Kezhaya said. “We are pleased to announce that the event will proceed as applied.”

Shefali Aurora, ACLU of Iowa staff attorney, said, “State officials have made it clear that they denied TST permission to hold events in the Capitol rotunda because they disagreed with their religious viewpoint. It is a foundational principle that the government cannot restrict speech in this way, favor one religion over another, or discriminate against religious groups because they don’t agree with them. That means if the state allows, for example, a Christmas or Hanukkah event, it cannot then deny the same right to other religious groups. Members of the Iowa congregation of The Satanic Temple Iowa have the same right to express their beliefs as all other religious groups do.”

“We are glad that the court decision today upholds the principles of free speech that we all hold dear and requires the state to act in line with the constitutional requirements of the First Amendment,” Aurora said.

The continuing lawsuit asks the court to:

• Find that the state officials’ denials violated TST’s and Adramelech’s federal constitutional rights to free speech, free exercise of religion, and equal protection under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
• Find that state officials also violated TST’s and Adramelech’s rights at the state level to nondiscrimination and religious freedom under the Iowa Civil Rights Act and Iowa Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
• Order State Department of Administrative Services officials to cease these violations and specifically to allow The Satanic Temple to host a holiday event at the Capitol this December as the lawsuit proceeds.
• Award damages for past violations.

In December 2023, TST applied for and was permitted to hold a holiday display in the Iowa Capitol rotunda, alongside other holiday displays, such as a Christian nativity scene.

This display was vandalized, and while charges were brought by local law enforcement against the individual responsible, state officials celebrated the act and condemned The Satanic Temple’s presence in the Capitol.

Then, starting in 2024 and continuing through 2026, the state repeatedly denied and unduly delayed TST’s applications and follow-up communications from TST for permission to hold a winter holiday event and display with family-friendly activities, such as singing carols, coloring pages, creating make-and-take ornaments, and a Krampus costume contest.

The free speech claim that the court ruled on today found that TST is likely to prevail in its lawsuit. The plaintiffs argue the state denials, stretching back over three years, violate the free exercise clause of the First Amendment, equal protection, and the Iowa Civil Rights Act and Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

In a separate lawsuit, the ACLU of Iowa is representing the Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers in an open records case related to the state’s denial of TST’s holiday event request. Details here. That litigation is ongoing, pending in the Iowa District Court for Polk County.

You can read the decision in full here.

Rachel Chambliss, The Satanic Temple Executive Director of Operations, rachel@thesatanictemple.com

Veronica Fowler, ACLU of Iowa Communications Director, editor@aclu-ia.org