After a lower court judge issued a ruling to block the city of Quincy, Massachusetts from installing 10-foot-tall bronze statues of Catholic patron saints on the facade of its new public safety building, siding with a group of angry residents who filed a lawsuit to stop the act due to what they referred to as impermissible government support for religion, the mayor decided to appeal to the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC).
Unfortunately, the state’s highest court also ruled against the mayor and upheld the judge’s injunction on the installation of the statues, stating that the lower court ruled correctly that the city’s actions were in violation of Massachusetts’ ban on government favoring a particular religion. However, many conservatives and constitutional scholars agree that such rulings are based on a faulty understanding of the separation of church and state.
The concept of the separation of church and state was extrapolated from a letter that Thomas Jefferson, one of our country’s greatest founding fathers, wrote to the Danbury Baptists, stating that the state did not have the right to interfere with the church. It did not, however, say that religion and its moral principles were to be removed and kept separate from the government
In fact, in the early days of the United States, it was common for states and local communities to declare an official religion, such as Christianity, and a specific denomination as being supported by the local government. Many individuals who ran for government positions in those states or localities were required to subscribe to specific denominations or Christian beliefs in order to serve.
According to a report from the CommonWealth Beacon in 2023, without seeking approval from the city council or making any sort of public announcement, Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch commissioned two statues, one of St. Michael the Archangel, patron saint of police officers, the other of St. Florian, the patron saint of firefighters, that would cost an estimated $850,000 and be placed at the entryway of the $175 million, four-story building that was replacing the city’s old police station.
The SJC ruled unanimously that the decision from a Norfolk Superior Court judge was right to issue a halt on the installation of the statues. A group of residents in Quincy had a legal right as taxpayers to sue over the use of public funds, according to the court, and the judge properly applied the correct test to determine whether the statue approval and installation was unconstitutional.
SJC Justice Scott Kafker wrote that the lower court’s ruling “reflects that the statues are large and will stand alone, they are brand new rather than long standing, they are closely affiliated with a particular religion, and they thus may convey to observing members of the public implicit government support for that religion and, as a result, subordination of other religions.”
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In other words, the statues will now be put in storage and will remain there while litigation continues concerning the case at the lower court level. The mayor of Quincy and those who are in favor of the statues being installed on the property have a lengthy legal road ahead of them and the ride is going to be bumpy.
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