Satanic Temple display at Iowa Capitol denied by state officials for second year in a row

DES MOINES — State officials have denied a request by the Satanic Temple of Iowa to hold a holiday event in the state capitol rotunda after rejecting a similar request last year.

The Iowa Department of Administrative Services, the state office that coordinates events at the Capitol, announced Monday that it denied a request by the Satanic Temple of Iowa to hold a holiday event in the building’s rotunda next month.

The department denied the temple’s request last year claiming the event violated the obscenity guidelines in the memorandum of understanding groups are required to follow when holding displays or events at the Capitol complex. The department said it rejected this year's request on the same grounds. The guidelines prohibit “obscene materials” including ones that depict “gratuitous violence or gore.”

“Today the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) has denied an event request from the Satanic Temple based on the grounds the event was also denied last year,” a DAS spokesperson said in a statement Monday. “As per the standard request process, all pending events are held on the events calendar until they are either confirmed or denied. This process has remained the same as it was last year.”

Last year’s celebration was scheduled to include the singing of Satanic holiday carols like “I’ll Be Your Mirror” by the Velvet Underground and Nico, and “Lucifer’s the Light of the World” by King Dude, as well as ornament making, an all-ages Krampus costume contest and a ritual where participants would form a procession to the display with a flameless LED candle, according to a letter sent last year to DAS by the temple’s general counsel.

The temple’s celebration last December was denied by former DAS Director Adam Steen, who said he rejected the request because the proposed celebration contained elements that were “harmful to minors.”

Steen, who resigned from the position in September to run for the Republican nomination in the Iowa gubernatorial race, has made his denial of both the Satanic event and a request to hold an all-ages, family-friendly drag show at the Capitol focal points of his campaign.

On Monday, Steen celebrated the state’s denial of the temple’s request during a press conference in front of the Christmas tree in the State Capitol Rotunda. The press conference was scheduled ahead of the event request denial to urge Gov. Kim Reynolds and DAS to reject the temple's holiday celebration.

“This is not religious expression. It's not free speech, it is evil,” Steen told reporters as a group of supporters cheered behind him. “The reasons I denied this event last year are the same reasons it was denied this year. That's also why I'm the only candidate being sued by the Satanists as I speak. If that's not an endorsement telling our base who the enemy truly fears, I don't know what it is. This moment proves this is a battle between good and evil. Good has won."

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Steen thanked Reynolds and current DAS director and former Webster County Supervisor Mark Campbell, who was appointed by Reynolds in October, for denying the temple’s request.

DAS’s second denial of the event request, which was initially slated to be held Dec. 13, according to the Iowa capitol complex event calendar, comes after the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers demanding the governor’s office release public records related to the decision to deny the temple’s request to hold a holiday celebration at the State Capitol Building.

The ACLU also filed a complaint with the Iowa Office of Civil Rights against Reynolds, Steen and DAS on behalf of the temple in June. It argues the state violated the Iowa Civil Rights Act and the group’s First Amendment rights by denying them the ability to use a public space that other religious groups have access to.

Matt Kezhaya, general counsel for the temple, said they are awaiting the screening decision on the complaint from the Iowa Office of Civil Rights, which is a procedural step required before filing a lawsuit in either state or federal court. He added that the Iowa Civil Rights Act provides statutory protection against religious discrimination.

"The government is not permitted to deny public services or benefits to people or religious groups because officials disagree with their beliefs or viewpoints. Once State officials open up the Capitol to public events, as it has for displays and events around the holidays, they can’t legally exclude The Satanic Temple because of its disfavored or minority viewpoint," Kezhaya said in a statement to the Lee-Gazette Des Moines Bureau. "Certainly, the State should not compound the significant harm its officials have already caused by doubling down on illegal and unconstitutional discrimination."

Steen approved the temple’s holiday display at the Iowa State Capitol in 2023, which he said was different from the 2024 “ritual.”

The 2023 display featured an inverted pentagram, poinsettias and the head of a statue of horned deity Baphomet.

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“I did that because it was not a matter of whether or not it was harmful to minors. It's a static statue, and I did not want to fight a free-speech issue at that time,” Steen told reporters.

The statue was destroyed by Michael Cassidy, a former congressional and legislative candidate from Mississippi. He pleaded guilty to an aggravated misdemeanor of third-degree criminal mischief in May, 2024, and was sentenced to probation.