ACLU of Iowa Files Civil Rights Complaint on Behalf of The Satanic Temple

The State of Iowa denied the TST Iowa congregation use of the capitol grounds citing a fear that their Krampus Costume Contest would include child-beating

Today, the Iowa American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a complaint with the Iowa Office of Civil Rights on behalf of The Satanic Temple (TST) in response to the state having denied TST public accommodation. It is a case that is equal parts infuriating and absurd. The short story is that the state of Iowa disallowed a holiday event organized by Iowa’s TST congregation in December on the grounds that the proposed Krampus costume contest was thought to endanger children. Iowa’s rationale seems to have been that because the mythical Krampus was something of a demonic anti-Santa who punished naughty children, those dressing as Krampus for the costume contest would naturally have no choice but to beat children who happened to be unlucky enough to approach the capitol that day. Of course, after determining that the event posed such an unlikely public threat, the Iowa Department of Administrative Services allowed no appeal and would accept no assurances that no children would be harmed during the event.

The stupidity does not end there, however. Our Iowa congregation was also denied an application to perform a multi-day public reading of Paradise Lost, which the state denied citing a standard that states no multi-day events will be allowed, with a limit of one event per year, confined to one day…a rule that was introduced only after the TST congregation applied for the event, with the specific intention of preventing the event. And then, Iowa flagrantly allowed other groups to continue on performing multi-day events at the capitol even after imposing the one-day restriction on TST. The complaint, filed on behalf of Mortimer Adramelech, Minister of Satan of the Iowa congregation of TST, states, “the Diocese of Des Moines is permitted to hold ‘pray the rosary’ events at the Capitol Building monthly, on every third Sunday, despite the policy limiting each group to one event per year… [and] a Protestant group prays in the rotunda every Tuesday at noon. The World Food Prize event and an insurance-related group have also been allowed multi-day events or multiple events within one year,” demonstrating that other groups are being allowed multi-day or multiple events per year without restriction by IDAS or its one-day-per event, one-event-per-year policy.”

As the ACLU of Iowa points out in their press release, “The filing of a complaint with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission is not a lawsuit. Instead, once a complaint is filed, the commission may choose to investigate and may choose to mediate between parties. After 60 days, the parties filing the complaint have the option to remove their complaint and instead request a "right to sue" letter, which then allows them to file a lawsuit in district court.”

Incidentally, the ACLU of Iowa did file a lawsuit against the state earlier this year on behalf of the Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers, an organization that filed a Freedom of Information Request under the Iowa Open Records Act requesting all documents in possession of the Governor’s Office regarding Iowa's decision to cancel TST’s holiday capitol event(s). ACLU Iowa explained in their press release, “The Governor's Office refused to produce the requested documents, citing ‘executive privilege,’ even though what was requested was clearly non-privileged: an executive agency report and documents relating to media preparation. Some relevant materials were turned over, but much was redacted. Also, the Governor's Office provided hundreds of pages of news clippings that mentioned the controversy but which did not actually address the request.”

It appears the Governor of Iowa, Kim Reynolds, has a lot to hide. She is currently pursuing a lawsuit of her own in a desperate effort to exempt her office from public records disclosure, attempting to completely change Freedom of Information law, just to accommodate her expansive and unlimited definition of “executive privilege.” But then, can one expect that politicians who arrogantly refuse to equally serve all citizens will feel any more duty to accountability than they do the Constitution? We look forward to seeing what will surely, eventually, be revealed.

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