A multifaith group of Quincy, Massachusetts, residents filed a lawsuit Wednesday in Norfolk Superior Court to stop the planned installation of two statues of Catholic saints at the entrance of the city’s new public safety building. The plaintiffs claim Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch’s installation plan has used over $760,000 of taxpayers’ dollars and that the project itself promotes one religion in violation of the Massachusetts Constitution.
Takeaway: This week’s lawsuit is not the first instance of residents attempting to maintain the increasingly narrow separation of church and state. Nine multifaith families in Louisiana challenged a state law in June 2024 requiring public elementary, secondary and postsecondary schools to display the Ten Commandments publicly in every classroom. Justices in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit heard oral arguments in January after the state appealed a Louisiana federal judge’s order granting a preliminary injunction against the law. The case is still pending in the Fifth Circuit, court records show.