Trump Judge Halts Removal of Confederate Memorial Mid-Teardown

The tearing down of a memorial statue for Confederate soldiers was halted Monday by a judge appointed by Donald Trump.

U.S. District Judge Rossie Alston of the Eastern District of Virginia issued a temporary restraining order in favor of two groups that have fought against the removal of a Confederate memorial at Arlington National Cemetery (ANC). Work had already commenced on the cemetery grounds to dismantle the statue but has been stopped because of the ruling.

Defend Arlington, one of the groups in favor of keeping the statue, filed a lawsuit on Sunday requesting the restraining order. That group, along with an affiliated group called Save Southern Heritage Florida, argues in the suit that the Department of Defense (DOD) and others acted hastily in the statue's removal. The suit says that gravesites located around the memorial were allegedly mistreated or not taken care of in connection with the removal process.

"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," the lawsuit states.

A court hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday, with the temporary injunction expiring at 5 p.m. the same day. Alston's order instructed the parties in the case to be prepared to discuss other related cases involving such statues, adding in a footnote that any "untrue or exaggerated" representations of gravesite disturbances may lead to sanctions.

"We need volunteers to go to Arlington to keep an eye on things - Esp this afternoon if possible," reads a Facebook post by Save Southern Heritage Florida, which said its team is "cold, tired and needs relief."

David McCallister, a spokesperson for Save Southern Heritage Florida, told Newsweek that the ongoing situation with the monument has been painstaking but he appreciates that the judge provided "a couple days' breathing time to defend our wait."

"There's no reason for this unseemly haste," said McCallister.

He added that an appeal is occurring in Washington, D.C., in hopes of a similar injunction or restraining order. "It really looks bad to have a chain-linked fence up and the giant crane there taking things away right in front of Wreaths Across America graves," he said.

Newsweek reached out to Defend Arlington by email for comment.

Last week, cemetery officials announced that the memorial would be removed by Friday. Video posted on social media Monday showed safety fencing around the area surrounding the statue, although officials said the graves and headstones in proximity to the statue were being protected.

The bronze memorial, sometimes referred to as the "Reconciliation Monument" and unveiled in 1914, offers a "nostalgic, mythologized vision of the Confederacy, including highly sanitized depictions of slavery," says the description on the cemetery's website. A "classical female figure" stands on a 32-foot-tall pedestal, wearing a crown of olive leaves that represents the American South.

She holds a laurel wreath, a plow stock and a pruning hook and has a biblical inscription at her feet that reads: "They have beat their swords into plough-shares and their spears into pruning hooks."

The statue stands on a pedestal with four cinerary urns, one for each year of the war, and is supported by a frieze with 14 shields, one for each of the 11 Confederate states and the border states of Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri. It includes 32 life-sized figures that represent mythical gods, alongside Southern soldiers and civilians.

One of those figures portrayed is an enslaved African-American woman depicted as a "Mammy" who holds the baby of a white soldier. Another is depicted as an enslaved man following his owner to war, according to ANC.

An inscription of the Latin phrase "Victrix causa diis placuit sed victa Caton" is displayed. It translates to: "The victorious cause was pleasing to the gods, but the lost cause to Cato."

The ANC says the inscription presents the South's secession as a noble "Lost Cause."

The push for removal has been fought not only by the two groups but also more than 40 Republicans in the House of Representatives, who collectively sent a letter to DOD Secretary Lloyd Austin demanding that the department "immediately suspend all removal activities" related to the memorial.

On Sunday, Kerry Meeker, an ANC spokesperson, told Newsweek before Alston's ruling that cemetery officials are "complying with a congressionally mandated requirement to remove the Confederate memorial by January 1, 2024."

Last year, an independent commission recommended that the memorial be removed in its report to Congress on the renaming of military bases and assets that commemorate the Confederacy. But Republicans have argued that the statue is not a celebration of the Confederacy but instead recognizes a period of reconciliation and national unity.

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, has vowed to move the statue to the New Market Battlefield State Historical Park in the Shenandoah Valley.