The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) filed a lawsuit against the Shelby County Board of Education on behalf of The Satanic Temple over what the club calls discriminatory practices.
The club has sought to bring its After School Satan Club to Chimneyrock Elementary School since November. The program is “not interested in converting children to Satanism” but only to focus on “free inquiry and rationalism.” The Satanic Temple says it “does not worship or believe in the existence of Satan” and will “only open a club if other religious groups are operating on campus.”
Nonprofit organizations can rent facilities from Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS). The Satanic Temple said the board rents space for the Christian Good News Club. That club is run by Child Evangelism Fellowship, “a Bible-centered organization composed of born-again believers whose purpose is to evangelize boys and girls with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and to establish (disciple) them in the Word of God and in a local church for Christian living…”
The After School Satan Club was allowed to meet at Chimneyrock on January 10th after what it described as a laborious process involving attempts to thwart its efforts. The group then submitted four new rental requests for monthly meetings at the school.
The board assessed a “special security fee” of $2,045.60 on the Satanic Temple for “additional security.” It also levied a $250 fee for field lights. The Christian Good News Club were not charged any of these fees, according to Satanic Temple. But Satanic Temple paid the fees anyway. These fees are the crux of the FFRF lawsuit.
MSCS “cannot pick and choose how much it charges an organization renting its facilities based on how much it does or does not favor the organization’s viewpoint, the content of its speech, or its religious beliefs,” reads the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee. The district’s “unconstitutional behavior has chilled The Satanic Temple’s speech and substantially burdened its ability to exercise its religiously motivated practice of offering inclusive, welcoming religious clubs at public schools.”
The move violates the group’s First Amendment rights, the lawsuit says. Precedence on the matter has already been set in a Georgia lawsuit decided by the U.S. Supreme Court that ruled such fees against disfavored groups violate free speech laws.
The Satanic Temple wants prompt approval of its reservation requests without any “discriminatory” rental fee. It also wants a judge to say the school board’s actions violate First Amendment rights. Finally, it wants to stop the board from continuing its discrimination against the After School Satan Club.