The remains of the Confederate Monument in downtown Decatur, Georgia. The Statue was removed in June of 2020 as the protests in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing sparked the removal of many Conferderate monuments across the country.
Courts are still handing down rulings in the rush of civil litigation that followed Confederate monument removals following the racial justice protests of 2020. The latest of these was handed down by the Georgia Court of Appeals on Feb. 23, concerning the removal of one such monument in downtown Decatur, the seat of DeKalb County.
A unanimous opinion authored by Presiding Judge Sarah Doyle based on the state Supreme Court’s ruling in a similar Sons of Confederate Veterans case last year determined that while the organization didn’t have standing because it was not a community stakeholder, individual citizens also named in the suits were still able to bring their claims. Now the case will head back to the Superior Court of DeKalb County to see if it’s barred by sovereign immunity.
