MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) – Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has filed a court challenge over Madison County’s removal of a Confederate soldier statue at its courthouse.
The Republican official announced the lawsuit Friday, arguing the statue’s movement to a Huntsville cemetery violates a 2017 state law called the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act, which is aimed at protecting Confederate monuments.
“It looks like someone is finally enforcing the law,” John Scales, a member of Heritage Protection of North Alabama, which wants the statue returned to the courthouse, told WBRC-TV.
David Odom, president of the Tennessee Valley Progressive Alliance said the law should never have been passed.
“If the local government says, ‘We want a Confederate monument off our courthouse square,’ it should be up to the local government,” Odom told WBRC.