Satanic Temple Sues Iowa After Capitol Denied Its Holiday Event Three Years Running

The Satanic Temple wants to sing carols, make ornaments and run a Krampus costume contest in the Iowa Capitol rotunda every December. The state won't let them. Now they're suing.

The ACLU of Iowa filed the federal lawsuit Thursday, August 13, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, according to the ACLU of Iowa itself and confirmed by KCCI, Iowa Public Radio, Radio Iowa and KWQC. The defendants: the Iowa Department of Administrative Services, current director Mark Campbell, and former director Adam Steen, who ran unsuccessfully as a Republican candidate for governor this year, per Iowa Public Radio.

How we got here

Back in December 2023, DAS actually let the Satanic Temple put up a holiday display in the rotunda, right alongside a Christian nativity scene, according to KWQC. That display got vandalized. A Mississippi man, Michael Cassidy, was initially charged with a felony hate crime for destroying it, according to midmichigannow, then pleaded guilty to a lesser aggravated misdemeanor to get the felony dropped.

Then things changed. Starting in 2024 and running through 2026, the Temple applied every year to hold an actual event, not just a static display, and got denied or stalled every time, according to KCCI. The 2026 application, for a Dec. 12 event, had been sitting pending for 159 days when the lawsuit was filed, KCCI reported. DAS added the event to the Capitol calendar in July but never sent a final countersigned agreement, per the same report.

The stated reason: kids and sticks

Then-DAS Director Adam Steen said the "presence of minors" combined with "costumes with sticks used as weapons on children" made the event harmful to minors, according to KCCI. He later called the denial a win, saying "no more having youth involved in costume contests that depict weapons used to abuse youth."

Governor Kim Reynolds backed that up in a statement reported by Radio Iowa, saying the proposed "satanic event, which specifically targeted children, would have been harmful to children and so it was denied."

Concerns about a state-sanctioned event where kids get swatted with sticks are legitimate. But the Temple's attorney, Matt Kezhaya, says the premise was fabricated. "The state said that we were going to beat children with sticks because we were going to have a costume contest which involved people holding sticks," Kezhaya said at a Thursday news conference, according to Breitbart News and KWQC. He says the Iowa congregation told the state repeatedly the sticks were "for appearance only" and even offered to drop the costume contest entirely, according to KCCI. The state, he said, "would not budge."

A civil rights office already weighed in

The Iowa Office of Civil Rights issued a Tier 1 Investigative Report in November 2025 finding probable cause that DAS and the governor's office discriminated against the Temple over the 2024 event, according to KCCI. That's not a final ruling. Probable cause findings just clear the way for further investigation. But it's a real institutional signal, not just an activist claim.

ACLU of Iowa Legal Director Rita Bettis Austen argues the core issue is viewpoint discrimination. "When the state makes the public space in the Capitol Rotunda available for these religious holiday events — for example, a Christmas event or a Hanukkah event — it cannot then deny that same right to other religious groups that it disfavors," she said, according to KCCI and Iowa Public Radio.

What the lawsuit actually asks for

The suit seeks a preliminary injunction ordering the state to approve the Dec. 12, 2026 event while litigation proceeds, plus compensatory damages for costs the Temple incurred booking an alternate venue, according to midmichigannow. No punitive damages are being sought, and no specific dollar figure was named. The Temple is suing alongside Mortimer Adramelech, described as Minister of Satan for the Iowa congregation, according to the ACLU of Iowa's own release.

The Temple itself, founded in 2013, says it doesn't believe in a literal Satan or the supernatural. It describes Satan as a symbol of rebellion against arbitrary authority, according to Iowa Public Radio. That distinction matters for the legal question here: this is a fight over neutral access rules for a recognized religious organization, not a dispute about whether Satanism is "real."

DAS did not respond to Iowa Public Radio's request for comment. The case now heads to a federal judge, who will decide whether to grant the injunction before the Temple's planned December event. If Iowa loses, the state may face a choice between letting the event proceed or shutting down Capitol rotunda holiday displays for every group, religious or secular, to avoid the equal-access problem entirely.