Lamar Advertising has asked the federal court for Arkansas’ Western District to dismiss a lawsuit the Satanic Temple filed against the company in February.
The Satanic Temple sued Lamar over a set of pro-abortion billboards that Lamar rejected in 2020.
Lamar’s attorneys have filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the Western District of Arkansas is not the proper venue for the court case and that the Satanic Temple has not suffered enough damages to warrant the lawsuit.
The rejected billboard designs claimed the Satanic Temple’s “religious abortion ritual averts many state restrictions” on abortion.
As we have written before, the Satanic Temple is a prominent atheist organization. The group has tried to persuade federal courts to recognize abortion as a religious ritual. So far courts have not done so.
According to court documents, the Satanic Temple wanted to place pro-abortion billboards near pregnancy resource centers in Fayetteville, Springdale, and Little Rock.
Unfortunately, the Satanic Temple has a history of stirring up controversy in Arkansas.
Besides working to place pro-abortion billboards in Arkansas, the group is part of a lawsuit to have the Ten Commandments monument removed from the Arkansas State Capitol Grounds.
In August of 2018 the Satanic Temple held a small protest in front of the State Capitol, and parked a flatbed trailer holding a 7½-foot statue of baphomet — a satanic figure — in front of the Capitol Building.
The Satanic Temple had previously threatened to put the baphomet monument on the capitol grounds itself. However, nothing ever came of the threat, because monuments require legislative approval.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
