AUSTIN — The Sons of Confederate Veterans group is suing the University of Texas at Austin for the second time in three years over the removal of statues from the flagship campus' main mall.

The group's Texas chapter argues that UT-Austin President Greg Fenves broke the law when he ordered the removal of four statues late Sunday night. Three of the statues depicted Confederate military and political leaders, and one depicted a former governor who was also the son of a Confederate veteran.

The statues' removal came one week after clashes over a similar move in Charlottesville, Va., turned deadly. While the discussion over the cultural and temporal appropriateness of Confederate monuments has raged for years in Texas, the Virginia incident reignited the conversation.

City leaders including Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings are mulling the future of their own statues. A Dallas lawmaker has asked for the removal of a Confederate plaque outside his Capitol office, and several other universities are debating whether to keep or remove their nods to the Lost Cause.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans unsuccessfully sued UT-Austin in 2015 over its decision to remove a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. This time, however, the group has teamed up with a descendant of George Littlefield, the former UT regent and Confederate veteran who paid for the statues to be erected before his death in 1920.

The group argues that the university is breaking the agreement it made with Littlefield, who created a bequest to pay for the commission and erection of those statues and several others on campus. The value of the monuments totaled $250,000 when they were erected nearly 100 years ago, the lawsuit claims, and they could be worth $500,000 each (or up to $3 million as a group) now.

"The statues were part of a bequest Maj. Littlefield made to the university that included funds for the promotion of American history from the Southern perspective," the lawsuit states.

1 / 10A Confederate plaque is displayed near the rotunda in the Capitol in Austin. (Eric Gay / The Associated Press) 2 / 10In this Monday, Aug. 21, 2017, photo, the Texas State Capitol Confederate Monument stands on the south lawn in Austin, Texas. The Civil War lessons taught to American students often depend on where the classroom is, with schools presenting accounts of the conflict that vary from state to state and even district to district. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)(Eric Gay / AP) 3 / 10In this Monday, Aug. 21, 2017, photo, the Terry's Texas Rangers cavalry monument, a regiment of Texas volunteers for the Confederate States Army assembled by Colonel Benjamin Franklin Terry in August 1861, is silhouetted against the Texas State Capitol in Austin, Texas. The Civil War lessons taught to American students often depend on where the classroom is, with schools presenting accounts of the conflict that vary from state to state and even district to district. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)(Eric Gay / AP) 4 / 10The statues depicting Robert E. Lee, Albert Sidney Johnston, John Reagan and James Stephen Hogg were removed from the Main Mall at The University of Texas at Austin on Sun. and Mon. (Aug. 20-21, 2017). The Lee, Johnston and Reagan statues will be added to the collection of the Briscoe Center for scholarly study. The statues of James Hogg, governor of Texas (1892-1895) will be considered for re-installation at another campus site. Shown here is the Robert E. Lee statue pedestal after the statue was removed.(University of Texas at Austin)(The University of Texas at Austi / TNS) 5 / 10The statues depicting Robert E. Lee, Albert Sidney Johnston, John Reagan and James Stephen Hogg were removed from the Main Mall at The University of Texas at Austin on Sun. and Mon. (Aug. 20-21, 2017). The Lee, Johnston and Reagan statues will be added to the collection of the Briscoe Center for scholarly study. The statues of James Hogg, governor of Texas (1892-1895) will be considered for re-installation at another campus site. Shown here is the Robert E. Lee statue on the flatbed truck after removal.(University of Texas at Austin)(The University of Texas at Austi / TNS) 6 / 10The Confederate War Memorial in Pioneer Park cemetery is seen at sunset in downtown Dallas, Wednesday, August 23, 2017. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News)(Tom Fox / Staff Photographer) 7 / 10The John Neely Bryan memorial stands before the Confederate War Memorial in Pioneer Park cemetery in downtown Dallas, Wednesday, August 23, 2017. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News)(Tom Fox / Staff Photographer) 8 / 10Davis Street in the Bishop Arts area of Dallas is seen at dusk, Wednesday, August 23, 2017. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News)(Tom Fox / Staff Photographer) 9 / 10People cross the busy intersection of Throckmorton St. and Cedar Springs Rd. in Dallas, Wednesday, August 23, 2017. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News)(Tom Fox / Staff Photographer) 10 / 10The Fort Hood U.S. military post in Fort Hood, Texas on Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2017. Some say, the base - one of the largest military bases in the world and a garrison named in honor of Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood - should be renamed. (Rose Baca/The Dallas Morning News)(Rose Baca / Staff Photographer)

The lawsuit also alleges that Fenves violated the plaintiffs' free speech rights by removing the statues without public discussion. Further, the group contends that he broke state law that gives state lawmakers and historical experts decision-making power to alter monuments to Texas veterans and that he overstepped authority that lies with the UT board of regents.

The group is asking the university to remove protective wrap placed around the statues' bases, obscuring the names and details of the men depicted there, and to halt any plans to take down a fountain at the campus mall's south end that was also paid for by Littlefield.

UT-Austin spokesman J.B. Bird declined to comment other than to note that the university's "lawyers carefully studied the relocation of the statues, which was handled appropriately."

The Sons are no strangers to the courtroom. The group took its fight over Confederate battle flag license plates to the U.S. Supreme Court and lost. The same year, when the group sued UT, it lost on the grounds that UT has sole authority over statues on its campus. The judge said that while the statues were removed, they were relocated to the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History and given a place of prominence there, as Littlefield had requested.