A federal court has ruled against a group of Italian-American women who sued New Haven in an attempt to force the city to return a statue of Christopher Columbus it removed from Wooster Square Park. The setback in court by the American Italian Women for Greater New Haven marks another milestone in New Haven’s forced exile of the famous navigator.

The city removed the statue in June 2020 - apparently without giving the public notice or voting on the question - from a once thriving Italian neighborhood where about 200 immigrants paid to have it erected in the tiny park as a gift to the city more than a century ago.