Boston Herald
July 22, 2021
The Satanic Temple’s lawsuit against Boston has more than a snowball’s chance in hell, a federal judge has ruled.
U.S. District Court Judge Allison Burroughs allowed several of the complaints from the Salem Satanists to move forward — while sticking a fork in some other ones — as The Satanic Temple, or TST, takes issue with it not being allowed to give the opening prayer for a City Council meeting.
The devil’s advocates initially attempted to sue the hell out of the city in January, arguing that since the council allows various mainstream religions to speak, it’s against the First Amendment to pick and choose who gets to give invocations.
The city has countered that it’s not about discriminating one religion from another — it’s just enabling councilors inviting pastors, rabbis, priests or imams from Boston’s communities to address the body. And further, the city says, it’s just simply tough luck for the temple if no one invites them.
The devil, of course, remains in the details, as the judge allowed certain parts of the suit to continue even as she threw out others. Burroughs agreed with that line of thought from the city and spiked the Satanists’ arguments that the councilors’ ability to choose to invite specific religions and representatives is itself discriminatory and a violation of the 14th Amendment.
But the judge said the argument that this runs afoul of the Establishment Clause can continue on, as case law isn’t settled on what schemes to allow minority religious groups work constitutionally.
TST co-founder Lucien Greaves remained steamed, saying in a statement, “By tethering TST’s invitation to its political clout, the City has engaged in a bare desire to harm a politically unpopular group which is decidedly not a legitimate governmental interest.”
Greaves told the Herald in January that this “should not be contextualized as Satanists against Christians.”
“It’s clearly the definition of discriminatory when you allow functionaries of the state deciding what viewpoints are allowed in the public square,” he said. “What we’re asking for is exactly what religious liberty is and what it looks like.”
And there could be hell to pay — or at least the temple’s legal costs, which the suit seeks to have covered.
Greaves has said the temple is “non-theistic” — they don’t literally believe in and worship Satan — but that doesn’t mean they don’t take their religion seriously. He said they “hold this iconography as a fight against tyranny.”
https://www.bostonherald.com/2021/07/22/satanic-temple-suit-against-boston-moves-forward/
July 22, 2021
The Satanic Temple’s lawsuit against Boston has more than a snowball’s chance in hell, a federal judge has ruled.
U.S. District Court Judge Allison Burroughs allowed several of the complaints from the Salem Satanists to move forward — while sticking a fork in some other ones — as The Satanic Temple, or TST, takes issue with it not being allowed to give the opening prayer for a City Council meeting.
The devil’s advocates initially attempted to sue the hell out of the city in January, arguing that since the council allows various mainstream religions to speak, it’s against the First Amendment to pick and choose who gets to give invocations.
The city has countered that it’s not about discriminating one religion from another — it’s just enabling councilors inviting pastors, rabbis, priests or imams from Boston’s communities to address the body. And further, the city says, it’s just simply tough luck for the temple if no one invites them.
The devil, of course, remains in the details, as the judge allowed certain parts of the suit to continue even as she threw out others. Burroughs agreed with that line of thought from the city and spiked the Satanists’ arguments that the councilors’ ability to choose to invite specific religions and representatives is itself discriminatory and a violation of the 14th Amendment.
But the judge said the argument that this runs afoul of the Establishment Clause can continue on, as case law isn’t settled on what schemes to allow minority religious groups work constitutionally.
TST co-founder Lucien Greaves remained steamed, saying in a statement, “By tethering TST’s invitation to its political clout, the City has engaged in a bare desire to harm a politically unpopular group which is decidedly not a legitimate governmental interest.”
Greaves told the Herald in January that this “should not be contextualized as Satanists against Christians.”
“It’s clearly the definition of discriminatory when you allow functionaries of the state deciding what viewpoints are allowed in the public square,” he said. “What we’re asking for is exactly what religious liberty is and what it looks like.”
And there could be hell to pay — or at least the temple’s legal costs, which the suit seeks to have covered.
Greaves has said the temple is “non-theistic” — they don’t literally believe in and worship Satan — but that doesn’t mean they don’t take their religion seriously. He said they “hold this iconography as a fight against tyranny.”
https://www.bostonherald.com/2021/07/22/satanic-temple-suit-against-boston-moves-forward/
No comments:
Post a Comment