Virginia Supreme Court Clears Path to Take Down Statue of Robert E. Lee
The Supreme Court of Virginia just legally cleared the removal of Richmond’s highly controversial sculpture of Confederate general Robert E. Lee.
The sculpture, which prominently looms over Monument Avenue in Virginia’s state capital, has been a magnet for protest in recent years as critics have denounced it as a symbol of treason and racial injustice. Public pressure to remove the statue skyrocketed last year after George Floyd’s death sparked mass anti-racism protests, and it was during that time when Governor Ralph Northam (D) said he would have the statue taken down.
The effort to remove the statue was blocked by two lawsuits filed by local residents who sought to keep it in its place. Both lawsuits argued that Northam was bound by a joint resolution from when the Virginia General Assembly accepted the state back in 1899, and that he was legally obligated to maintain it where it stands.
After months of injunctions and appeal, the Supreme Court of Virginia unanimously ruled in both cases that the state is no longer bound to its agreement prohibiting the removal of monuments from state property. The justices also wrote that the terms of the resolution were “unenforceable as contrary to public policy and for being unreasonable because their effect is to compel government speech, by forcing the Commonwealth to express, in perpetuity, a message with which it now disagrees.”
Attorney General Mark Herring took to Twitter to celebrate the rulings.
?BREAKING? We have won the case to remove the Robert E. Lee statue from Monument Avenue. The Supreme Court of Virginia has dissolved all injunctions and the statue may now come down. A big win for a more inclusive Commonwealth! pic.twitter.com/Fdtl8wU0YB
— Mark Herring (@MarkHerringVA) September 2, 2021
Northam also released a celebratory statement as he thanked Herring and others involved in the legal battle for the statue’s removal:
“Today’s ruling is a tremendous win for the people of Virginia,” he said. “Our public memorials are symbols of who we are and what we value. When we honor leaders who fought to preserve a system that enslaved human beings, we are honoring a lost cause that has burdened Virginia for too many years.”
