Preview of What's to Come: As Iowa Falls to Dems, Obama Judge Clears Way for Satanists to Take Over Statehouse
Days before Iowa voters handed Democrats significant gains, a federal judge appointed by President Barack Obama ordered the state to allow the Satanic Temple to hold a December event inside the Capitol rotunda.
Chief District Judge Stephanie M. Rose ruled that years of denials by Republican officials amounted to viewpoint discrimination and directed the state to approve the Dec. 12 gathering within seven days.
Federal judge greenlights SATANIC event at Iowa Capitol
Judge Stephanie Rose ruled the Satanists can hold their Dec 12 event, citing ‘free speech’ and rejecting the state’s claim it could ‘harm children’
The Satanic Temple is also pursuing damages https://t.co/ZwcIE3RJUw
— RT Intl (@RT_on_X) November 5, 2026
@RT_on_X Yet old ladies go to jail for praying silently outside abortion clinics.
— libertarian in Los Angeles (@LA_libertarian1) November 5, 2026
@RT_on_X @RT_com Pure evil
— Eddie (@EdnaBilles) November 5, 2026
The event is scheduled to include a costume contest featuring Krampus — the European folklore figure who carries bundles of sticks and is said to punish misbehaving children — along with caroling, children’s coloring pages, and ornament-making.
State officials had rejected prior applications in part because of concerns that the props could frighten or harm young visitors and that the overall presentation conflicted with rules against excessive violence or obscenity.
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Rose dismissed those objections, writing that excluding the costumes because they might scare children “targets a perspective on the holiday rather than the holiday itself.”
The state is appealing the decision.
Chief U.S. District Judge Stephanie Rose ordered Iowa state officials to approve a holiday permit for The Satanic Temple, ruling that rejecting the event violated First Amendment free speech rights. #ChristianPost #IowaPolitics #FirstAmendment https://t.co/Eqa9QdGhVx
— The Christian Post (@ChristianPost) November 4, 2026
The ruling arrived before the midterm results and was not caused by the outcome of the election.
But it still functions as a useful preview of the cultural direction Democratic gains tend to accelerate.
An Obama-appointed judge has now cleared the way for a group that deliberately invokes Satanic imagery to occupy space traditionally associated with Christmas inside a state capitol.
Judge Stephanie M. Rose (appointed by Obama) just sided with the ACLU to give the SATANIC TEMPLE a holiday display at the Iowa Statehouse.
This was the same display vandalized a couple years back. But now the ACLU has sided with the devil in the fight.
Trust me when I say I will be going to war over this 🙏
— Callie Allie ✝️🔥 (@csimons3) November 2, 2026
The group describes itself as non-theistic and says it uses the figure of Satan as a symbol of opposition to authority rather than as an object of worship.
That distinction does little to change the practical outcome of the state government of Iowa granting approval to Satanic ideology and practice.
I’m sure it was just an accidental oversight that @NBCNews neglected to call her OBAMA-APPOINTED Chief District Judge Stephanie M. Rose…
Federal judge orders Iowa to allow Satanic Temple to hold holiday event in the State Capitol https://t.co/WEi67w4Luv
— Law Signal (@LawSignal) November 3, 2026
@LawSignal @NBCNews Satanic people do Satanic things!
— TheGoodGuy (@LovedOnlyOne) November 3, 2026
Republican officeholders and voters are not uniformly devout. Many of them fall short of the standards their own rhetoric sets.
What has historically restrained the worst excesses on the right is the large share of Republican voters who still treat Christianity as more than a cultural accessory.
Democratic voters and the politicians they elect do not operate under the same restraint as many Republicans. Large portions of that coalition treat traditional religious observance as a problem to be managed or mocked rather than a value to be protected.
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