The Scalia Law School at George Mason University marked Law Day on Monday by unveiling the soaring “Bill of Rights Eagle” statue by internationally known sculptor Greg Wyatt.
The 4,300 pound statue was elevated an additional 2 ½ feet for the installation in front of Hazel Hall.
A same-size plaster cast form of the eagle was displayed in the U.S. Russell Senate Building Rotunda in 1989, the same year the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union broke apart.
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower created Law Day in 1958 in response to the Soviet Union’s May Day celebrations, Scalia Law School Dean Henry Butler told those at the event.
“We’re honored that the sculptor Greg Wyatt chose this amazing eagle to be placed at the entrance of the law school,” Butler said. “We invite students and faculty from other campuses to come, and be inspired by the eagle.”
Both Butler and Mason President Ángel Cabrera stressed the importance of the Bill of Rights Eagle being at a university named for George Mason IV, known for not signing the U.S. Constitution because it didn’t contain protections for individual rights.
“I just got chills,” Butler said describing the moment he found out the name of the eagle. “Here we are at the school named for the father of the Bills of Rights.”
The statue’s new home in front of Hazel Hall features prominent curvatures and is a part of the urban architecture of the bustling Virginia Square neighborhood in Arlington—far different from the Harvard University yard where it stood for more than two decades on long-term loan.
“I think Harvard was an OK place for the Bill of Rights Eagle, the U.S. Senate was a little better, but I can’t think of a better place than one named for the very man who was behind the existence of the Bill of Rights,” Cabrera told the crowd.
Sculptor Greg Wyatt stands in front of his statue, the "Bill of Rights Eagle," in front of Hazel Hall at the Antontin Scalia Law School on George Mason University's Arlington Campus. Photo by Ron Aira.