Virginia judge rules confederate statues are war monuments and can't be removed
A Virginia judge has ruled that the Confederate statues in Charlottesville are protected by state law because they are war monuments – and will not be taken down while the case is ongoing.
The statues were at the center of shocking violence in the summer of 2017 as neo-Nazis and other white nationalists, marching in support of them staying put in a park in the college town, clashed with anti-rightwing demonstrators in an outbreak that left many injured and one young demonstrator dead.
The ruling on Wednesday by Judge Richard Moore came after a lawsuit was filed against city council members by the Monument Fund, an organization based in Charlottesville that campaigns to preserve such statues, which could yet go to trial.
The suit was filed back in March 2017, alleging that the city council violated state laws when they voted to remove the statues of Confederate generals Robert Lee, and later, the Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson from Charlottesville.
Moore cited how statues of Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson depict the men in military uniforms and on horses associated with them during the civil war. Virginia law makes it illegal for local municipalities to remove war monuments without permission from the state.
Virginia law makes it illegal for the local government to remove war monuments without the state’s permission.
Moore acknowledged the controversy that has surrounded Confederate statues around the nation in recent years, and said his ruling is limited to the question of whether the Lee and Jackson statues fall under the definition of war memorials in Virginia law.
“While some people obviously see Lee and Jackson as symbols of white supremacy, others see them as brilliant military tacticians or complex leaders in a difficult time ... and do not think of white supremacy at all and certainly do not believe in, accept, or believe in such. In either event, the statues to them under the undisputed facts of this case still are monuments and memorials to them, as veterans of the civil war,” Moore wrote in his ruling.
Before the case goes to trial, Moore must first rule on other pending issues, including the council’s motion for immunity from the lawsuit.
Bob Fenwick, a former city councilor who is named in the lawsuit, believes that the council still has a good case for removing the statues, claiming that: “It was a lawful act that we did” and that he was “very comfortable” with his vote to remove the statues. “It’s based on a flawed law, so the law doesn’t make much difference; it was a public process, it was a lawful process, so that’s our case,” he said.
In an effort to fight against the council’s original vote to remove the statues, hundreds of far right members gathered in Charlottesville in August 2017, to protest in what was called a Unite the Right rally. The protest turned deadly when self-avowed white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr drove his car into a crowd of counter-protestors killing a woman, Heather Heyer, and injuring nearly three dozen other people. Fields was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison last year.
Other Confederate monuments across the country have been the subject of fierce debate and sometimes clashes. Many have been taken down following the violence in Charlottesville.