Writing is on the wall for VLS murals after judge’s ruling Modified: 3/12/2021 9:29:34 PM RUTLAND — A federal judge has ruled that Vermont Law School can put up a wall to obscure a pair of murals, so long as the murals are unharmed. The ruling, issued Wednesday by U.S. District Court Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford, deals a blow to artist Sam Kerson, who painted the murals, which depict scenes of slavery and the Underground Railroad, in 1993 and 1994. Crawford rejected Kerson’s request for a preliminary injunction preventing the law school from destroying or modifying the works. Kerson had argued that the federal Visual Artists Rights Act, or VARA, protects the murals from even being covered. Law school officials, who last summer announced plans to paint over the murals, have covered them with dropcloths, but they intend to cover it with acoustic tiles placed 2 inches in front of the murals, each of which measures 8-by-24 feet.