- The Commonwealth Court in Pennsylvania has upheld an Italian heritage group’s challenge against the removal of a Christopher Columbus statue from a Pittsburgh park.
- The dispute over the Schenley Park statue has been sent back to Allegheny County Common Pleas Court for further review.
- The Italian Sons and Daughters of America filed the lawsuit in October 2020 after the Pittsburgh Art Commission recommended removing the statue.
A Pennsylvania appeals court has kept alive an Italian heritage group’s challenge to efforts by the city of Pittsburgh to remove a statue of Christopher Columbus from a city park.
The Commonwealth Court on Friday sent the dispute over the 13-foot bronze and granite Schenley Park statue back to Allegheny County Common Pleas Court for further consideration of issues raised by opponents of the removal.
The Italian Sons and Daughters of America filed suit in October 2020 after the Pittsburgh Art Commission voted to remove the statue and then-mayor Bill Peduto also recommended its removal. The group argued that the mayor could not override a 1955 city council ordinance that cleared the way for installation of the 800-pound statue. City attorneys argued that the legislation was more akin to a resolution accepting a gift and no council action to rescind it was needed.
Common Pleas Judge John McVay Jr., after urging both sides for two years to work out a solution such as relocation, ruled in 2022 that because the statue is in a city-owned park, it represents government speech. But the Commonwealth Court wrote Friday that McVay erred in concluding that the group’s claims “are barred in their entirety,” rejecting what it called the idea that claims of violations of the city’s charter, code and ordinance were “irrelevant procedural quibbles.”
A person walks by the statue of Christopher Columbus at Marconi Plaza in Philadelphia, on Dec. 12, 2022. A Pennsylvania appeals court has kept alive an Italian heritage group’s challenge to efforts by the city of Pittsburgh to remove a statue of Christopher Columbus from a city park. Disputes over Columbus statues have roiled other cities across the nation, including Philadelphia, where supporters in a city with a deep Italian heritage say they consider Columbus an emblem of that heritage. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
The appellate court did reject the group’s challenge to McVay’s refusal to remove…
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