Virginia Supreme Court: Lee statue in Richmond to come down

[David Lockmiller]

Virginia Supreme Court clears way for Lee statue in Richmond to come down

The justices found that requirements built into the 1889 deed giving the site to the state, as well as language adopted by the General Assembly in 1890 authorizing the accepting of the property, no longer bind the state to preserve and protect the monument.

The justices wrote that “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.”