A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling that the Boston City Council did not violate the Satanic Temple’s First Amendment right to freedom of religion by not inviting the group to deliver a prayer before a meeting.
The city showed that councilors invite invocation speakers of various faiths and that the invitations are usually based on personal relationships with the speaker or the speaker’s work in the councilor’s district, said US Circuit Court Judge Sandra Lynch.
Lynch said several of the councilors indicated they were not aware of any charitable work the Satanic Temple had done in Boston or had personal connections to its members.
Councilors “have full discretion” over whom they invite and are not required to extend invitations, Lynch said in the decision issued Tuesday. City officials testified that the Satanic Temple is the only religious group that has requested an invitation to give an invocation.
“[The Satanic Temple] has simply not shown evidence of discrimination based on religious beliefs as to which speakers are invited, much less evidence of intentional discrimination,” Lynch wrote.
The Salem-based temple sued the city in 2021, claiming the council was guilty of religious discrimination for refusing its request to have a representative give an invocation before a meeting. The temple first made its request to the city in 2016.
Lucien Greaves, co-founder of the Satanic Temple, blasted the ruling in a statement Wednesday, calling it a “flagrant disregard for fundamental constitutional principles.”
“The courts now tell us that technicalities permit public officials to stand outside of the law, and that religious liberty is dependent upon official support from corrupt public office holders,” Greaves said. “I fear that the Christian Nationalist coup advances relatively unopposed while hand-wringing progressives sit silently, abdicating their rights, waiting for the perfect ‘optics’ that will allow them to join the fray. That moment, should it ever come, may already be too late.”
Since the 1800s, the city council, which meets roughly 35 times per year, has opened its meeting with a prayer or remarks led by a “private person, often a religious leader,” according to the ruling. The opening remarks are not always religious. In some cases, the meetings have opened with a person reading poetry, Lynch wrote.
The councilors are assigned meetings to invite an invocation speaker. Among the 35 speakers invited over a one-year period from 2015 to 2016, two speakers were from Jewish temples and one was from a Unitarian Universalist organization, the ruling stated. The rest were from Christian churches and groups.
Some invocation speakers have received a stipend from the city, but that practice was ended in 2017 by Councilor Michelle Wu, now the mayor of Boston, according to the ruling.
“There are no formal selection guidelines or rules regarding whom a Councilor may choose, nor is there a written selection policy,” Lynch wrote.
But Lynch cautioned the city about its method for inviting speakers from religious faiths, saying it is “admittedly meant to serve the interests of incumbent City Councilors.”
“Those interests could in the future lead to Councilors favoring invitations only to those representing religious electoral majorities and explicitly proselytizing for those views or disparaging minority or unpopular groups,” Lynch wrote. “The record before us shows Boston has taken no such action. Should it do so in the future, courts may again be called on to enforce constitutional commands under the Establishment Clause.”
The Satanic Temple group bills itself as “the primary religious Satanic organization in the world” that works to “preserve and advance secularism and individual liberties.”
The temple has drawn attention in recent years for its activism, including its support of LGBTQ rights and abortion access.
In 2022, the temple sought to have its flag raised at Boston City Hall after the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the city had violated the First Amendment rights of a Christian group by refusing to fly its flag, which contained a red Christian cross.
In the spring of 2023, the Satanic Temple hosted its annual conference, SatanCon, at the Boston Marriott Copley Place.
The Salem temple has also been targeted for destruction.
Earlier this year, a Michigan man was charged with planning to bomb the temple. A couple of months later, in April, someone allegedly threw an explosive device onto the building’s porch, police said.
In 2022, a Chelsea man was arrested and charged with arson after he allegedly set fire to the temple’s entrance while three people were inside. No one was injured.
Nick Stoico can be reached at nick.stoico@globe.com.