ALLENTOWN – A Massachusetts-based satanic religious group alleges that a Northampton County school district has violated its First Amendment rights, by initially granting – and then ultimately reversing course and denying – it the ability to convene an After School Satan Club at a local middle school.
The Satanic Temple, Inc. of Salem, Mass. filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on March 30 versus Saucon Valley School District, of Hellertown.
“The Satanic Temple (TST) sponsors the After School Satan Club (ASSC) at a number of public schools across the country to provide young people with an alternative to other religious clubs that meet on campus after school. The Saucon Valley School District has intentionally opened up its facilities for after-school use by a variety of organizations, including the Good News Club, a Christian group sponsored by a local church and Child Evangelism Fellowship,” the suit says.
“In February, TST applied to hold monthly after-school gatherings at the Saucon Valley Middle School, where the Good News Club also meets. Although the District initially approved TST’s application – correctly explaining in a Facebook post and email to parents that, ‘by law, the District cannot discriminate among groups wishing to use the SVSD facilities’ – it quickly bowed to the ensuing public outcry and rescinded its approval.”
The suit adds the District claimed that the uproar, which included “a threat of violence against the middle school later traced to a man in North Carolina, was caused by TST” – and further, that the District accused TST of “violating District policy by failing to clearly disassociate the Club from the District.”
“Pointing to an ASSC permission slip distributed online, the District asserted that the document’s explicit disclaimer, which stated that the ASSC ‘is not an activity of the school or the School District,’ was not large enough. According to the District, it was this purported failure of font size – and not the District’s email to parents, its Facebook post, or the discriminatory beliefs of District officials or others who objected to the ASSC – that caused the disturbance and prompted the threat. Rather than simply asking TST to change the supposedly deficient disclaimer, however, the District banned the ASSC from using school facilities for the rest of the school year. This decision to rescind approval of TST’s application and ban the ASSC from using school facilities was impermissibly based on TST’s viewpoint and religion,” the suit states.
“The District’s claim that it rescinded approval of TST’s application because the ASSC’s permission slip violated District policy is plainly a pretext to exclude a controversial group from District facilities. That the District’s approval of the ASSC’s use of school facilities caused controversy is of no moment: Under the First Amendment, the District can no more deny the ASSC access to its facilities than it could eject an after-school Muslim or Jewish club, or the Good News Club, from District schools due to SVSD officials’ own bias or due to disruption caused by those who oppose the religion or viewpoint of the clubs.”
For counts of violating the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution’s Free Speech, Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses, plus Article I, Section 7 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, the plaintiff is seeking the following relief:
• An order declaring that defendant’s decision to rescind approval for TST’s application and prohibit the ASSC from using school facilities is unconstitutional under the Free Speech Clause, Free Exercise Clause, and Establishment Clause of the First Amendment;
• An order declaring that defendant’s Policy 707 (governing “Use of School Facilities”) is facially vague and overbroad;
• An order preliminarily and, thereafter, permanently enjoining defendant and its officers, agents, affiliates, subsidiaries, servants, employees, successors, and all other persons or entities in active concert or privity or participation with them, from continuing to unlawfully deny plaintiff access to District facilities, which makes clear that the District:
1. Must allow the ASSC to meet at the Saucon Valley Middle School at the times and on the days previously approved by the District;
2. Must allow the ASSC to make up the missed March meeting and any other missed meetings;
3. Must distribute ASSC’s permission slip for students to take home in the same manner that it has previously distributed permission slips for the Good News Club;
4. Shall not impose any other unconstitutional conditions on plaintiff or the ASSC, including but not limited to a security fee based on any anticipated reaction, protest, or opposition to the ASSC’s meetings; and
5. Shall not retaliate against TST, the ASSC, or any member or attendee of ASSC meetings for objecting to defendant’s unlawful practices and bringing this action— including with respect to TST’s future use of District facilities beyond this school year.
• Entry of judgment for plaintiff against defendant for compensatory damages and/or nominal damages in an amount to be determined by the Court;
• An award, from defendant to plaintiff, of reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs incurred in connection with this action, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Section 1988;
• An order retaining this Court’s jurisdiction of this matter to enforce the terms of the Court’s orders; and
• Such further and different relief as is just and proper.
The plaintiff is represented by Noah Shaw Becker and Will W. Sachse of Dechert, LLP in Philadelphia, plus Richard Tsai Ting, Sara J. Rose, Daniel Mach and Heather L. Weaver of the American Civil Liberties Union, in Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.
The defendant is represented by Mark W. Fitzgerald, Beth N. Shore and William Christian Moffitt of Fox Rothschild, in Blue Bell.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania case 5:23-cv-01244
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com