Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/18pdf/17-1717_4f14.pdf
Page Number: 26

Cite as:  588 U. S. ____ (2019) 

19 

Opinion of the Court 

rest  for  the  impermissible  purpose  of  supporting  religion 
but abandoned that purpose and retained the laws for the 
permissible purpose of furthering overwhelmingly secular 
ends”). 
  Third, just as the purpose for maintaining a monument, 
symbol,  or  practice  may  evolve,  “[t]he  ‘message’  conveyed 
. . .  may change over time.”  Summum, 555 U. S., at 477.  
Consider,  for  example,  the  message  of  the  Statue  of  Lib- 
erty,  which  began  as  a  monument  to  the  solidarity  and 
friendship between France and the United States and only 
decades  later  came  to  be  seen  “as  a  beacon  welcoming 
immigrants to a land of freedom.”  Ibid. 
  With sufficient time, religiously expressive monuments, 
symbols, and practices can become embedded features of a 
community’s landscape and identity.  The community may 
come  to  value  them  without  necessarily  embracing  their 
religious  roots.    The  recent  tragic  fire  at  Notre  Dame  in 
Paris  provides  a  striking  example.    Although  the  French 
Republic rigorously enforces a secular public square,19 the 
cathedral remains a symbol of national importance to the 
religious  and  nonreligious  alike.    Notre  Dame  is  funda-
mentally  a  place  of  worship  and  retains  great  religious 
importance, but its meaning has broadened.  For many, it 
is  inextricably  linked  with  the  very  idea  of  Paris  and 
France.20    Speaking  to  the  nation  shortly  after  the  fire, 
President  Macron  said  that  Notre  Dame  “ ‘is  our  history, 
our literature, our imagination.  The place where we sur-
vived epidemics, wars, liberation.  It has been the epicen-
ter of our lives.’ ”21 
  In  the  same  way,  consider  the  many  cities  and  towns 

—————— 

19 See French Constitution, Art. 1 (proclaiming that France is a “secu-

lar . . . Republic”). 

20 See Erlanger, What the Notre-Dame Fire Reveals About the Soul of 

France, N. Y. Times, Apr. 16, 2019. 

21 Hinnant,  Petrequin,  &  Ganley,  Fire  Ravages  Soaring  Notre  Dame 

Cathedral, Paris Left Aghast, AP News, Apr. 16, 2019.