A two-year-old lawsuit is winding down in Charlottesville after Judge Richard Moore issued an injunction, blocking the city from taking down statues of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.
A judge in Charlottesville has barred the city from removing confederate monuments from local parks. Citizens who sued over a vote by city council to do so were relieved. Among them, attorney Buddy Weber.
“You know we didn’t take to the streets with tiki torches or anything. We came in here and argued our case on the rule of law," he says. "It’s taken two years to get to this point, and the judge has made his rulings on the basis of the law.”
The law refers to a state statute that prevents damage to or removal of war memorials. By defying that law, Weber says, former Mayor Mike Signer and other members of council put the whole city at risk.
“I don’t think Richard Spencer and his merry band of neo-Nazis would have ever come here had it not been for Mike Signer saying, ‘We’re going to be a center of the resistance, and then them taking a vote to remove the statues in violation of the rule of law," Weber argues. "Those two actions put a target on Charlottesville’s back.”
Now, the plaintiffs will argue that the city should pay damages and legal fees that could exceed $600,000.
