(KIWA Staff Photo)Des Moines, Iowa (RI) — The ACLU of Iowa has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the Satanic Temple, asking a court to block state officials from preventing the group from having an event in the Iowa State Capitol this December.
ACLU legal director Rita Bettis Austin says the filing follows multiple complaints already submitted at the state level.
Bettis Austin says the Satanic Temple’s planned December holiday event was intended to be family-friendly, and she argues the state violated several of the group’s rights. She says the decision to file in federal court came after exhausting state remedies and because federal claims carry a statute of limitations.
Bettis Austin says the lawsuit seeks two primary outcomes.
Governor Kim Reynolds issued a written statement last year saying the State Capitol is open to the public, but that “the State’s event policy takes into consideration conduct that would be harmful to minors.” Reynolds said the proposed “satanic event, which specifically targeted children, would have been harmful to children and so it was denied.”
