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“In this country, public art does not become banned simply because it might make some people think about religion.”
Models of the statues proposed to be placed outside the new Public Safety headquarters in Quincy. (Mayor Thomas Koch’s office)
The state’s highest court heard oral arguments Wednesday in the city of Quincy’s appeal to install two 10-foot bronze statues of Catholic saints in front of the city’s new police and fire building.
Oral arguments began Wednesday, according to the Supreme Judicial Court docket, with the ACLU representing more than a dozen residents and the law firm Beckett Fund representing the city.
The arguments began with a tense exchange, Boston Globe I mentionedBetween Judge Gabriel Wolohoujian and Beckett’s advisor Joseph Davis. Davis claimed there was precedent for Quincy installing the two statues — St. Michael the Archangel and St. Florian, the patron saints of police and firefighters, respectively.
Wolohogian asked how many police and fire departments in Massachusetts have statues in front of either saint, and Davis cited statues in front of departments in New York City, Los Angeles and Bristol, Connecticut, according to globe.
“Well, not in Massachusetts, and I came up with three out of hundreds of thousands of police and fire department buildings in the country,” Wolohogian said. globe.
The SJC took up the case after a Norfolk Superior Court judge blocked the installation of the statues last fall, deeming their religious significance “indisputable” and likely violating the state’s Declaration of Rights.
Plans to install statues of St Michael and St Florian were first reported on a large scale previously Patriot Ledger Last year after Mayor Thomas Koch made the decision to commission the artworks. Quincy City Council members were reportedly unaware of the statues.
While Koch defended the plans as “beautiful public art,” the ACLU called on Quincy officials to “rescind” the plans and filed a lawsuit on behalf of 15 residents. Convery Bolton Valencius, a Quincy resident and plaintiff in the case, said she opposes the statues as Christian.
“My faith is at the center of my life. If the government elevates one religion over others, no one’s faith will be safe,” Bolton Valencius said in a statement through the ACLU. “We all deserve the freedom to follow where our faith leads us — or not to believe at all.”
The city says the statues honor first responders.
“For generations, Florian’s legacy has inspired brave men and women who run toward danger when others need help,” Tom Bowes, chief of Quincy Firefighter Local 792, said in a statement via Beckett. “We hope the court will allow Quincy to honor this tradition and the first responders who live it every day.”
Davis of Beckett, representing the city, pointed to the “extremely ironic” “statue of Moses and other symbols with religious roots” in the courtroom where the case was being heard.
“This courtroom art is not unconstitutional, and neither are Quincy’s statues,” Davis said in a statement. “In this country, public art does not become prohibited simply because it might make some people think about religion. We are confident that the justices will apply the common-sense rule here and allow Quincy to honor its firefighters and police.”
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