Saucon Valley must allow After School Satan Club to meet, judge rules

Authored by wfmz.com and submitted by LeaveThatCatAlone

L. SAUCON TWP., Pa. - Federal judge John Gallagher ruled Monday the After School Satan Club can begin holding meetings at Saucon Valley Middle School.

The long-awaited decision said the Saucon Valley School District violated the First Amendment when it revoked the club's approval. In his opinion, Judge Gallagher recognized the difficulty Superintendent Jaime Vlasaty faced following a shooting threat related to the Satan Club, calling her position "unenviable."

But the judge also said the suppression of the club's speech was not "Constitutionally permissible." Now, more than two months after its approval was revoked, the club is planning to hold its first meeting as early as next week.

"We're very happy that the First Amendment prevailed this morning," said Sara Rose, Deputy Director for the ACLU of Pennsylvania, which represented the Satanic Temple in court.

Rose said the school district tried to argue the After School Satan Club didn't follow its advertising rules by not explicitly saying they weren't endorsed by the district, but the ACLU was able to prove a double standard.

"I think the most powerful piece of evidence that we had on the Satanic Temple's side was the fact that their advertisement was so similar to that of the Good News Club," said Rose.

The Good News Club is the Christian club in the district.

"They're both religious clubs, they're both having meetings in the same room at essentially the same time after school. One was okay and one wasn't, and I think that created a lot of questions in the court's mind," said Rose.

Now, the After School Satan Club is hoping to hold its first meeting as early as next week.

"The judge ordered the parties to come up with some new meeting dates in the event that he ruled in favor of the club, so we did that, and the first one will be May 10 with two subsequent dates in May," said Rose.

And even though the School Board recently changed the rules for third-party clubs, requiring them to meet no earlier than 6 p.m., Rose said the ruling allows the After School Satan Club to meet at the originally agreed-upon 3:05 p.m.

"I believe that the judge indicated in his opinion that the club will be able to meet at the originally agreed-upon time," said Rose.

The After School Satan Club also has plans to expand to other school districts, and Rose said she hopes they're paying attention to this case before they try to stop it.

"Instead of going to court and engaging in very costly and time-consuming litigation, that school districts will just go ahead and allow the club to meet on the same terms that other religious clubs are allowed to meet at these schools," said Rose.

We reached out to Superintendent Vlasaty for a comment Monday, but we did not immediately hear back. It's not clear at this time if the school district is planning to seek any more legal action, or if it plans to immediately allow the Satan Club to start meeting again next week.

ymcmbrofisting on May 1st, 2023 at 17:41 UTC »

Freedom of speech is pretty rad.

Also: Saucon deez nuts hahah gottem

Yousoggyyojimbo on May 1st, 2023 at 17:27 UTC »

This is essentially the same fight that religious people have consistently lost over and over and over again in court and it's funny every time.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE CANT DISCRIMINATE AGAINST RELIGIONS WE DON'T LIKE? ...Oh, the same protections we have for religious expression cover other religions or beliefs, too? The first amendment applies to other people? Well I guess I'll see you next week when I forget about this again."

zwaaa on May 1st, 2023 at 17:21 UTC »

So...was this North Carolina man arrested? Questioned? Did they at least e-mail him?