MONTGOMERY, Ala. - The Alabama Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the majority-black city of Birmingham cannot remove or obscure a towering Confederate monument in a city park because of a state law protecting such memorials. The all-Republican court reversed a circuit judge’s ruling that struck down Alabama’s 2017 law protecting Confederate monuments as an unconstitutional violation of the free speech rights of local communities. Alabama sued Birmingham in 2017 after municipal officials erected a wooden box obscuring the inscriptions on a 52-foot-tall (16-meter-tall) obelisk honouring Confederate veterans. The 2017 Alabama Memorial Preservation Act prohibits relocating, removing, altering or renaming public buildings, streets and memorials that have been standing for more than 40 years. The state appealed, and the justices reversed the trial judge, ruling that a state law trumps a city action.

Source: thestar November 27, 2019 17:00 UTC