A federal judge issued an order to keep a Confederate memorial at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday, temporarily halting the monument's removal.
The decision came a few hours after workers started to remove the towering memorial, which is considered one of the most prominent monuments to the Confederacy on public land in the United States.
Removal of Confederate Memorial in Arlington Cemetery
The removal of the memorial comes as it has faced criticism for its sanitized depiction of slavery. The efforts were part of a military-wide effort to remove Confederate symbols from bases, ships, and other facilities.
Dozens of Republican lawmakers have expressed their opposition to the removal of the memorial. While the work to remove the monument was done on Monday, the judge issued a temporary restraining order that the Defend Arlington group requested.
The group is affiliated with an organization known as Save Southern Heritage Florida, and it sued the Defense Department in US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on Sunday. It argued that the Pentagon made a rushed decision to take down the Confederate monument, as per the New York Times.
It also argued that the Pentagon circumvented federal law by not preparing an environmental impact statement. The group added that the work to remove the monument would damage the surrounding graves and headstones in the cemetery.
Over the weekend, safety fencing was installed around the memorial and a spokesman for the cemetery said that the disassembly efforts started on Monday morning. She said in an email that the Army is complying with the restraining order and has stopped the removal efforts.
The Confederate memorial in Arlington National Cemetery is the latest of such monuments to be the target of removal since the public backlash in 2020 against Confederate statues. This came after the killing of George Floyd.
Temporary Restraining Order
The temporary restraining order was issued by US District Judge Rossie Alston, who noted that a lawyer for the plaintiffs represented to the court that the work at the memorial involves the disturbance of gravesites, according to NBC Washington.
The judge wrote in a footnote that he took the representations of officers of the Court very seriously. The cemetery said on Friday that the area around the Confederate memorial would be protected to ensure no impact on the surrounding landscape and grave markers are made.
The development comes after a federal judge in the District of Columbia dismissed a lawsuit last week that sought to block the removal of the memorial that the same group filed. In Alston's order, he told the parties involved to be prepared to discuss how that particular case affects his decision on whether or not to extend the temporary restraining order.
The status was first unveiled in 1914 and features a bronze woman, crowned with olive leaves, standing on a 32-foot pedestal. It was initially designed to represent the American South. According to Fox News, Arlington said the woman holds a laurel wreath, a plow stock, and a pruning hook.
