“By excluding Plaintiffs Vavrick and The Satanic Temple from providing an invocation before the City Council, while opening this forum to clergy from other faiths, Defendant violates the First Amendment’s establishment clause,” the lawsuit claims, adding that “the lack of any policy setting standards and criteria for selection of clergy members to provide an invocation before City Council violates the First Amendment because it vests unbridled discretion with the City Clerk, creating an unreasonable risk of arbitrary and discriminatory decision-making.”
While it’s possible that other factors, like simple incompetence, could have contributed to Chicago’s failure to schedule a Satanic Temple invocation, discrimination against the Temple is clearly prohibited by the First Amendment. Even if Chicago may not like it, Satanists—and clergy from any other disfavored faith—have an equal right to give invocations before the City Council.
* Article From: Boing Boing
