American Legion urges Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to allow secular symbols with religious meaning on public property

Client(s) The American Legion

Jones Day filed an amicus brief on behalf of The American Legion in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court arguing that the systematic exclusion of symbols with both secular and religious significance from state property based on their religious meaning would violate the First Amendment. The City of Quincy, Massachusetts sought to install on the façade of its new public-safety building statues of figures that have come to represent firefighters and police officers, respectively: Florian, a Roman soldier who pioneered firefighting brigades, and Michael the Archangel, a religious and literary figure representative of the defense against evil. Because these figures are also Catholic saints, a Massachusetts trial court ruled that installation of the statues would violate a provision of the Massachusetts Constitution prohibiting the "subordination" of any religious denomination. As the amicus brief explains, an interpretation of the Massachusetts Constitution that excludes symbols with secular significance from the public square solely because of their religious meaning would violate the federal Establishment Clause by adopting a posture of state hostility towards religion.

Fitzmaurice v. City of Quincy, No. SJC-13877 (Mass.)