Earlier this week, a federal judge compelled Iowa state officials to approve The Satanic Temple’s plan for a December holiday observance.
Krampus, the mythic half-goat fiend who disciplines misbehaving youngsters during the festive season, could be headed for Iowa, thanks to a court ruling in favor of The Satanic Temple.
On November 2, Chief U.S. District Judge Stephanie Rose ordered the head of the Iowa Department of Administrative Services (DAS) to approve The Satanic Temple’s request to hold a December 12 holiday event in the Iowa Capitol Rotunda.
The DAS had initially rejected The Satanic Temple’s 2024 proposal because the group’s intended Krampus costume contest could be deemed “harmful to minors,” the order noted. (Incidentally, a proper Krampus costume would typically include a switch, since legend holds that Krampus uses a bundle of twigs to strike children.)
The Satanic Temple, however, maintains that its applications were denied on unconstitutional grounds. In August, The Satanic Temple, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, filed suit asserting that DAS officials violated the religious organization’s First and 14th Amendment rights by repeatedly denying holiday event requests based on the group’s “religion, protected speech, and membership in a suspect class.”
In her order, Rose ruled in favor of The Satanic Temple, finding that the First Amendment challenge was likely to succeed. She noted, “Excluding Krampus costumes because they might frighten children, while admitting the season’s celebratory displays, targets a perspective on the holiday rather than the holiday itself.” She also pushed back against the DAS director’s concern that Krampus’s stick could be used for physical harm, pointing out the department “never looked into whether the sticks posed any real danger.” She also stressed that the Capitol already has security measures to prevent visitors from carrying dangerous items.
Barring a successful appeal by state officials, the preliminary injunction allows The Satanic Temple to proceed with its planned holiday festivities, which, according to USA Today, include making ornaments, coloring, and competing in the Krampus costume contest.
This is not the group’s first legal win this year. Back in March, a federal judge ordered Arkansas state officials to remove a Ten Commandments monument after the state Capitol refused to display The Satanic Temple’s statue of Baphomet, a mythical goat-headed creature. The Satanic Temple had offered to install the statue to challenge the law that authorized the display of the Ten Commandments monument. The federal judge ruled that the law violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment because it conveyed “a message that the Christian religion is favored.”
According to The Satanic Temple, Baphomet serves as a “counter-balance against exclusive religious representation; not simply a symbol of freedom of thought, freedom of conscience, and religious liberty, but an exercise of those values.” Now, it appears Krampus may become a similar symbol of free expression.
