What was the reason for the satanic plaque in Minnesota and was it given to Governor Walz personally?
Executive summary
A plaque thanking Governor Tim Walz for “allowing the spread of Satanism” was part of a holiday exhibit installed inside the Minnesota State Capitol under a permit issued by the state’s Department of Administration; the governor’s office says he did not approve the display and did not remove it because of First Amendment protections [1] [2]. Reporting documents outrage and political pushback, and while the plaque publicly thanked Walz, there is no sourced evidence that it was presented or gifted to him in person.
1. A permitted holiday display, not a gubernatorial endorsement
The plaque appeared as part of a holiday exhibit mounted by a local satanist group in a public hallway of the Minnesota State Capitol after the Department of Administration granted a permit for a “holiday display” or First Amendment-protected speech event; the department explicitly said issuing a permit does not imply state endorsement [1] [3]. Multiple outlets reported the exhibit’s location and the department’s permitting role, and the governor’s communications team emphasized that Walz “did not approve” the display and “does not police speech” in the Capitol, framing the decision as a legal, not a political, choice [2] [4].
2. The plaque’s message and who installed it
Video and reporting show the plaque was installed by a satanist group (identified in some reports as Minnesota Satanists or Cerberus Ministries) and carried language thanking Gov. Walz for not standing in the way of their presence in the Capitol; outlets captured the plaque’s wording and social-media posts by the group celebrating “religious plurality” [5] [6]. The group framed the display as an exercise of religious expression and a protest against perceived suppression of minority beliefs, arguing that government cannot pick which religions are legitimate [6] [3].
3. Political fallout, vandalism and competing narratives
The display sparked immediate outrage from conservative politicians and commentators who treated the plaque as a political slight and an example of the governor tolerating offensive speech, while others pointed to legal precedent and pluralism to defend the decision not to remove it [4] [3]. The exhibit was vandalized amid the controversy, and state lawmakers—especially Republicans—publicized the plaque as evidence of poor judgment, even as Walz’s office reiterated its hands-off stance grounded in free-speech protections [2] [4].
4. Did Walz receive the plaque personally? The factual limits
Reporting shows the plaque was publicly displayed inside the Capitol and singled out the governor in its language, but none of the sourced coverage documents that the plaque was handed to or accepted by Gov. Walz personally; instead, the narrative centers on a permit-driven exhibit and the governor’s statement that he did not approve it [5] [2]. Conservative outlets and commentators have characterized the plaque as an affront that Walz “allowed,” but those accounts conflate the display’s presence with a personal gift; available reporting supports that it was installed in a public display under permit rather than delivered to the governor’s hands [1] [7].
5. Two competing frames: free speech vs. moral outrage
The episode crystallized two legitimate, competing frames: one legalistic — that the state cannot selectively censor religious or political displays in shared public spaces and therefore must permit controversial groups to exhibit — and one moral-political — that public institutions should decline to host symbols many citizens find offensive, especially during seasonal programming [1] [3]. Both frames appear in the sourced reporting: proponents of the exhibit emphasize religious pluralism and First Amendment protections, while critics stress symbolic harm and political responsibility, and the governor’s office explicitly positioned its response on the constitutional side [6] [4].
6. Bottom line and what remains unproven
The plaque’s presence in the Capitol was the result of a permitted public display by a satanist group and a decision by state administrators not to remove it under First Amendment principles; Gov. Walz publicly said he did not approve the display and did not personally accept or endorse it [1] [2]. What cannot be confirmed from the reporting provided is any instance of the plaque being physically delivered to or received by Walz as a gift — the record documents a public exhibit that referenced him, not a personal presentation [5] [7].