Justine Coleman, The Hill, September 12, 2019

A Virginia state judge ruled Wednesday that statues of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson that were at the center of 2017 protests must remain standing in Charlottesville, Va.

Circuit Judge Richard Moore ruled that Virginia state law prohibits moving war memorials and that moving the statues would break that law.

Moore issued a permanent injunction preventing the statues from being moved at the beginning of a trial over a lawsuit brought against the city by groups that wanted to preserve the statues.

{snip}

Moore had already ruled the city could not take down the statues without permission from the state.

{snip}