Satanic Temple Wins Legal Fight Over 10 Commandments Monument in Arkansas

The Satanic Temple scored a legal victory on Tuesday when a federal judge ruled that Arkansas must remove a Ten Commandments monument from its state Capitol. The ruling comes after a nearly decade-long battle over the religious display on government grounds.

In 2017, the Arkansas Capitol erected the privately donated monument after the state’s Legislature passed the Ten Commandments Monument Display Act, which authorized the installation. In response to the religious display (which was originally destroyed by a man unaffiliated with The Satanic Temple and installed again in 2018), The Satanic Temple offered to install its own statue, a 7.5-foot-tall bronze statue of Baphomet, a goat-headed creature with wings and an Iggy Pop–inspired human chest. In 2018, the group temporarily brought Baphomet to the state Capitol on a forklift to protest what they argued was unequal treatment by the state. If the Ten Commandments could be displayed on government property, the group argued, then why not show off Baphomet too? 

A rally organizer explained, “If you’re going to have one religious monument up then it should be open to others, and if you don’t agree with that then let’s just not have any at all.”

The Satanic Temple’s offer to privately donate Baphomet was ultimately rejected, prompting it to join the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Ten Commandments Monument Display Act. 

Tuesday’s ruling by District Judge Kristine G. Baker sided with The Satanic Temple, along with the American Humanist Association, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, and the Arkansas Society of Freethinkers. Baker ruled that the installation of the Ten Commandments Monument “conveys a message that the Christian religion is favored, and the Display Act is coercive in violation of the Establishment Clause.”

She also noted that The Satanic Temple was “prevented from competing with Christianity on an equal footing for placement of its Baphomet monument on State Capitol grounds,” which meant the state had also violated the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. 

Baker’s ruling orders Arkansas Secretary of State Cole Jester to remove the Ten Commandments statue “immediately,” but the order is on hold pending a potential appeal. Jester has already said that his team is “working closely with the Attorney General’s Office to protect [the] critical part of the Capitol in the courts,” reported the Arkansas Advocate.

Former Arkansas state Sen. Jason Rapert (R–Conway), who originally sponsored the monument, said the ruling during Holy Week was a “slap in the face” to Jews and Christians. He vowed that he, along with the National Association of Christian Lawmakers, would continue to fight the ruling.

For now, The Satanic Temple is celebrating the win. The group’s website says the case “will have reverberations far and wide, validating the fundamental strength of our arguments and mission.”  

The Baphomet saga is just one of the ways The Satanic Temple has sought to “defend pluralism” and challenge Christian hegemony in America. The Temple first garnered national attention in 2013 for trolling former Florida Republican Gov. Rick Scott over his support for prayer in Florida’s public schools. The same year, Temple members held a “pink mass” to criticize Westboro Baptist Church leader Fred Phelps. In the made-up ritual, same-sex couples kissed over the grave of Phelps’ mother, which The Satanic Temple claimed would turn Phelps’ mother gay in the afterlife. In 2014, members attempted to host a “black mass” at Harvard University, which prompted protests by outraged Catholic groups.

In 2019, Penny Lane, the director of Hail Satan?, which chronicles The Satanic Temple’s many media stunts, told Reason that despite being founded “as a prank,” The Satanic Temple has “very quickly gained a huge amount of authentic followers.”

“They’re not going to stop,” Lane said. “I think most politicians are just kind of like, ‘If we wait this out, they’ll go away.’ And I’m telling you, they’re not going away.”

Tuesday’s decision seems to confirm Lane’s prediction.