State court sends Christopher Columbus statue removal debate back to Allegheny County Court, advocates react

The fate of the Christopher Columbus statue in Pittsburgh’s Schenley Park must once again be debated before an Allegheny County judge.

A Commonwealth Court ruling last week, in its primary effect, reversed an Alle­gheny County Common Pleas judge’s dismissal of a lawsuit the Italian Sons and Daughters of America (ISDA) filed in an attempt to block removal of the statue.

The state court order, penned by Judge Patricia A. McCullough, sent the case back to the county court for further proceedings.

The Italian Sons and Daughters has been locked in a legal battle with the city for the past several years over the 13-foot-tall bronze-and-granite statue that was unveiled at the park in 1958. The city has attempted to remove the statue, while the ISDA wants it to remain in place.

“The bronze Columbus statue in Schenley Park, casted in 1958 after years of meager donations from poor Italian immigrants, symbolizes the contributions and sacrifices of not only Italian immigrants, but of all immigrants, to the growth and success of the city of Pittsburgh,” Sons and Daughters President Basil Russo said. “This history has the same right to be preserved and celebrated, as does the history of all other groups.”

Philadelphia attorney George Bochetto filed the lawsuit and subsequent appeal on behalf of the group.

“I am delighted the Commonwealth Court agreed that the dismissal of this lawsuit by the lower court was plain error and that, while the mayor of Pittsburgh has certain First Amendment rights, he does not have free rein to violate the law,” Bochetto said. “I am also hopeful that the new mayor will sit down with me to reach a resolution without further costly litigation and a waste of taxpayers’ money.”

The statue was erected by the Sons of Columbus of America, a predecessor of the ISDA, three years after the city passed an ordinance giving them permission to do so.

In the summer of 2020, Pittsburgh, like many cities across the country at the time, reconsidered the display of various statues they felt connoted systemic racism, including those of Christopher Columbus.

The Pittsburgh statue was covered that year to prevent vandalism, and the Pittsburgh Art Commission voted unanimously on Sept. 23, 2020, to remove it from public view.

But the ISDA filed suit and sought an emergency injunction less than a month later, seeking to stop the removal.

In an amended complaint filed in November 2021, ISDA also claimed that former Mayor Bill Peduto improperly influenced the city Art Commission’s vote to remove the statute.

The city denied the allegations against Peduto, claiming they were meant to disparage him.

It also claimed in a December 2021 filing that ISDA’s complaint had no standing.

Allegheny County Judge John T. McVay threw out the complaint in September 2022, finding the ISDA failed to present any case law to show the mayor does not have authority to remove city-owned monuments on city-owned land.

McVay also ruled that the ISDA’s lawsuit seeking to block the statue’s removal was “an improper interference with the (City of Pittsburgh’s) right to speech.”

The ISDA pushed the matter to state appellate court and arguments were made in October 2023 before Commonwealth Court judges.

ISDA argued that the statue’s installation was governed by a 1955 ordinance passed by city council, and its removal requires that the ordinance be repealed.

City attorneys at the time said the legislation passed in 1955 authorizing the construction of the statue is more akin to a resolution accepting a gift than it is an ordinance, and no action by city council to rescind it was necessary.

Regarding McVay’s dismissal of the ISDA suit, McCullough countered that the legal complaint was not based on opposing the speech rights of city government officials.

McCullough wrote that the ISDA instead had argued that Peduto and the Art Commission, “in taking action to remove the statue, did not comply with applicable provisions of the (city) Charter and Code, violated ISDA’s rights to due process, violated public trust principles and breached a contract entered into between the city and ISDA’s putative predecessor, the Sons of Columbus.”

Calls to Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey’s press secretaries were not immediately returned.