Attorney General Mark R. Herring has filed a notice in the Robert E. Lee monument lawsuit in Richmond Circuit Court that he “intends to defend the governor’s decision and ensure the removal of this divisive relic.”
Gov. Ralph Northam announced the plans to remove the statue of the Confederate Civil War general located on Monument Avenue at a news conference last week.
A Richmond judge placed a temporary restraining order on the removal on Monday, and two lawsuits have been filed to try to block Northam’s order from being carried out.
Herring explains in the notice that “the Governor has both the authority and the moral obligation to remove this badge of white supremacy from its place of exaltation.”
“The statue is a daily reminder of one of the darkest periods in our Commonwealth’s and Nation’s history,” Herring said. “The statue does not seek to explain or seek reconciliation for that time: it seeks to glorify it. It is a piece of state property freighted with exclusionary meaning to broad swaths of Virginians.”
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