An Onondaga County Supreme Court judge has ruled that the city of Syracuse cannot remove or alter the Christopher Columbus monument in downtown.

In his ruling released Friday evening, Judge Gerald Neri said that removing the monument would violate "the City's duty to protect the Monument" and violate the city's charter.

Neri added that the city must maintain the monument in its present form. 

For some time, there has been a movement to remove the statue due to Columbus' controversial past with Native Americans. Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh announced in October 2020 that the statue would come down in favor of creating a cultural heritage site where the statue stood, honoring both Italian Americans and Native Americans.

Many in the Italian American community in Central New York have been fighting that decision since. The Columbus Monument Corp. filed a petition against Walsh and the city in May 2021, its position being that Walsh acted without Common Council approval, without legal authority and did not involve the corporation in the process. Arguments for the case began in January.

Neri wrote in his decision that because three of the people who brought the lawsuit donated funds "for the express purpose of restoring the Monument," they had legal standing to bring the suit against the city and Walsh. 

“The City of Syracuse will appeal the decision and looks forward to presenting its position to the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division," Mayor Ben Walsh said in a statement later Friday.