Massachusetts High Court Upholds Block on Catholic Saint Statues at Quincy Public Safety Building

BOSTON — Massachusetts' highest court has ruled that two 10-foot bronze statues of Catholic saints commissioned for a new Quincy public safety building would amount to unconstitutional government endorsement of religion, upholding a lower court's order keeping them out of storage and off the building indefinitely.

The Supreme Judicial Court ruled unanimously Aug. 20 that the statues of St. Michael the Archangel and St. Florian — patron saints of police and firefighters, respectively — are so closely tied to Catholic tradition that placing them alone on a government building, without other secular or interfaith symbols alongside them, would signal official favoritism toward one religion. Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch commissioned the roughly $850,000 statues in 2023 without public disclosure; their existence became public only after local newspaper reporting in early 2025 prompted community backlash, including an online petition and objections from 19 local faith leaders.

A dozen Quincy residents, represented by the ACLU of Massachusetts along with Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, sued in 2025 arguing the statues violate the religious-neutrality guarantees of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights. Norfolk Superior Court Judge William F. Sullivan sided with the residents that October, writing that the mayor's stated secular purpose "offers nothing more than semantics" given how the project was quietly commissioned. Koch appealed directly to the state's highest court, which heard arguments in May before issuing Thursday's decision affirming the injunction.

ACLU of Massachusetts legal director Jessie Rossman called the ruling an affirmation of the state constitution's neutrality principles, while Americans United president Rachel Laser said the city had sent a message that "one faith is favored over all others" through the placement of the statues on a building meant to serve all residents equally. Joe Davis, senior counsel at Becket law group representing the city, called the decision "disappointing" but "only preliminary," and Koch said in a statement that the city would continue fighting to install the statues.

The case now returns to Norfolk Superior Court for further proceedings, and the city has signaled it may seek review from the U.S. Supreme Court.