Iowa's Capitol May Have a Very Krampus Christmas After the Satanic Temple's Latest Legal Win

Krampus, the half-goat creature who punishes misbehaving children during Christmastime, could be coming to town in Iowa, thanks to a federal judge’s order in favor of The Satanic Temple. 

On November 2, Chief U.S. District Judge Stephanie Rose ordered the director of the Iowa Department of Administrative Services (DAS) to approve The Satanic Temple’s application to host a December 12 holiday event in the Iowa Capitol Rotunda. 

The DAS first denied The Satanic Temple’s application to host a holiday event in 2024 because the group’s planned Krampus costume contest could be considered “harmful to minors,” noted the order. (Notably, any good Krampus costume would include a stick, because, according to legend, Krampus uses a bundle of twigs to swat children.) 

The Satanic Temple, however, has argued that its applications were denied on unconstitutional grounds. In August, The Satanic Temple, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, filed a lawsuit arguing that DAS officials violated the religious organization’s First and 14th Amendment rights by repeatedly denying holiday event applications based on the group’s “religion, protected speech, and membership in a suspect class.” 

In her order, Rose sided with The Satanic Temple, finding that the group’s 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, noting the department “never looked into whether the sticks posed any real danger.” She also pointed out that the Capitol has security measures in place to prevent visitors from carrying dangerous items.

Barring a successful appeal by state officials, the preliminary injunction allows The Satanic Temple to carry out 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 fictional 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. 

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