Two residents of Richmond, Virginia, have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a ruling by the state Supreme Court that allowed officials to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
A petition was filed Wednesday by the residents who live near the site where the statue was removed, arguing then-Gov. Ralph Northam did not have the proper authority to revoke an agreement to keep the statue erected on state-owned land.
An attorney for the petitioners, Patrick McSweeney, said the impact of the statue’s removal order “will be widespread and significant.”
“If this Virginia decision is followed, every contract entered into by a state government can be abrogated when a governor or a court — not the legislature — decides that the contract violates public policy. This would leave those who contract with state governments at the mercy of judges and executive or administrative officials who have no legitimate role in setting the Commonwealth’s public policy,” the petition read.
Virginia promised to forever maintain the statue, according to the 1887 and 1890 deeds that transferred its ownership to the state, but state Supreme Court justices said the obligation no longer applies, siding with Northam last year. The statue was ultimately removed from Monument Avenue in September.
“Those restrictive covenants are unenforceable as contrary to public policy and for being unreasonable because their effect is to compel government speech, by forcing the Commonwealth to express, in perpetuity, a message with which it now disagrees,” the justices wrote.
The unanimous ruling by the state justices cited testimony from historians who said the statue was erected in 1890 to honor pre-Civil War Southern values that relied on the subjugation of black people as slaves.
Northam pushed to remove the statue in June 2020 following the peak of unrest during Black Lives Matter protests over the death of George Floyd. The statute’s base was also defaced by protesters with slogans voicing opposition to racism.
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A deal is presently pending approval from the Richmond City Council to send the statue to the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia.
It is not immediately clear whether the U.S. Supreme Court would decide to take up the case.
