Voz media US Voz.us
Apple store Voz-media Play store Voz Media

Federal judge halts removal of Confederate monument from Arlington National Cemetery

The statue was to be removed before the end of the year. The temporary restriction will expire on Wednesday morning when it will be decided what ultimately happens to the piece.

Imagen del monumento confederado del Cementerio Nacional de Arlington. Su retirada está programada para el próximo 22 de diciembre de 2023.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Published by
Rosana Rábago Sainz

A federal judge on Monday halted the removal of a Confederate monument from Arlington National Cemetery (ANC). The statue was required to be removed before the end of the year, and the work was originally scheduled to finish this coming Friday. However, due to criticism from the Republican Party, Judge Rossie Alston issued a temporary restraining order to stop the dismantling of the symbol.

In the order, Alston blocked "any acts to deconstruct, tear down, remove, or alter the object of this case." However, the mandate is temporary and will expire this Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. EST. That day it will be decided whether the sculpture remains in place or if, on the contrary, its removal is completed, taking into account the regulations approved by the Biden Administration and by which the names of some military bases that honored confederates leaders were changed.

In a footnote to the order collected by Fox News, the judge, appointed by former President Donald Trump, assured that he was paralyzing the removal of the Confederate monument because "he takes very seriously the representations of officers of the Court and should the representations in this case be untrue or exaggerated, the Court may take appropriate sanctions."

Defend Arlington, the group that requested that the removal of the Confederate monument be prevented

AP reports that the restraining order was requested by an organization called Defend Arlington. The group, which belongs to the organization Save Southern Heritage Florida, sued the Department of Defense on Sunday. As can be read in the letter, they filed the lawsuit in an attempt to block the removal of the monument:

The removal will desecrate, damage, and likely destroy the Memorial longstanding at ANC as a grave marker and impede the Memorial's eligibility for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

For its part, Arlington National Cemetery stopped work on removing the monument. A decision that was reported by a spokesperson for the cemetery and that they will respect until the authorities decide whether or not to maintain the restriction order:

The Army began disassembly of the monument atop the Confederate Memorial prior to the court issuing the temporary restraining order. The Army is complying with the restraining order and has ceased the work begun this morning.
tracking