Federal Court Spanks Satanic Temple in Ruling Over City Council Prayer
A federal Judge has ruled Boston’s City Council is not at fault for discriminating against the Satanic Temple when they rejected its request to kick off a weekly meeting with a prayer, bringing the lawsuit launched against the city to a close.
U.S. District Court Judge Angel Kelley, in a comprehensive 31-page ruling, explained that the invitation to deliver opening prayers comes at the discretion of individual city councilors and is a privilege extended, not a right for the satanists to demand.
“The evidence on record, however, suggests that the city councilors’ discretion was not exercised in such a way that individuals or groups were excluded from giving an invocation because of their religious beliefs.”
According to a report from CBN News
“The judge further explained city council members “did not allow some requests while denying others.” Rather, she wrote, “the city councilors’ primary motivation in selecting an invocation speaker … has always been the individual or organization’s involvement in the community.”
While The Satanic Temple claimed in January 2021 that the denial was a violation of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution, Kelley ruled there is no real evidence to back up such an allegation.
The judge noted the majority of invocation speakers have “been undoubtedly of a Christian denomination” but acknowledged speakers from other faith traditions have been invited, allowing for the promotion of a “diversity of religious views.””
Notably, The Satanic Temple recently held SatanCon in Boston- billed as the largest satanic gathering in history. It dedicated the event to Boston Mayor Wu “for her unconstitutional efforts to keep TST out of Boston’s public spaces.”
They are currently embroiled in a skirmish with worship leader Sean Feucht, with TST co-founder Lucien Grieves (real name Douglas Mesner) announcing that he and his band Satanic Planet will be copying Sean Feucht and going on a road, mimicking his ‘Kingdom of the Capitol’ tour that has seen the prominent Christian worship leader crisscross the country and playing a worship set at different state capitol buildings.