April 1 (UPI) -- The Virginia Supreme Court ruled Thursday that state law does not ban Charlottesville from removing Confederate statues at the hub of deadly neo-Nazi rally in 2017.
At issue, was the Confederate statues of Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, which white nationalists rallied to protect in an August 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Va. One White supremacist plowed his car into the crowd and killed counter-protester Heather Heyer, 32, and injured 19 others.
The City Council had moved to re-designate parks named for Lee and Jackson and remove statues in February 2017, CNN reported. The movement to remove statues deemed racist picked up momentum after White supremacist Dylann Roof killed nine Black people in a church shooting in 2015 in Charleston, S.C.
Charlottesville placed black tarp over the statues after the deadly rally in mourning for lives lost, resulting in a lawsuit. Among those suing were Charlottesville lawyer Frederick Payne, listed as the main plaintiff, a group for male descendants of people who served in Confederate armed forces, and The Monument Fund. Plaintiffs alleged violation of state law against moving or interfering with the statues.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court of Virginia overturned the circuit court order, which had sided with plaintiffs, and vacated the lower court's awarded damages and attorneys' fees.
The Virginia Supreme Court found that state law, as amended in 1997, does not ban removal of statues.
"Additionally, there is no language in the statute that demonstrates an intent on the part of the General Assembly for the prohibitions in Code § 15.2-1812 to apply to monuments or memorials erected by cities prior to 1997," Justice Bernard Goodwyn wrote in the opinion.
