Attorney General Mark R. Herring has weighed in on the debate concerning the removal of Confederate monuments in Virginia. In an advisory opinion issued Friday, Herring said statues can be removed by cities if there are no specific laws pertaining to individual memorials.
Herring’s statement comes at a time when the removal of Confederate monuments has become a controversial topic of discussion in Virginia and much of the southern United States.
At white nationalist rallies in Charlottesville on Aug. 11 and 12, several white nationalist groups claimed they were protesting a City Council decision earlier this year to remove the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from Emancipation Park.
A lawsuit has since been filed against the city in Charlottesville Circuit Court, arguing that the city lacks the legal authority to remove the statue. A judge has put implementation of the city’s decision to remove the Lee statue on hold, pending the outcome of the suit. The next hearing in the case is set for Wednesday.
A 1998 statute restricts the movement of war memorials in Virginia cities and does not apply to those monuments constructed before that year, according to Herring.
“When the General Assembly omits a clear manifestation of intent that a statutory change should apply retroactively, it generally should be concluded that the legislature did not intend such an application,” Herring wrote in the advisory opinion.
However, the original law passed in 1904 still prevents the removal of war memorials constructed after that year if they fall under the jurisdiction of a county government in Virginia, according to Herring.
City Council recently voted to shroud the Lee statue, as well as a statue of Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson in Justice Park. The coverings have been met with opposition from some community members, with the Lee statue shroud being removed overnight Aug. 26.
Read the full copy of Herring’s opinion here:
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