In a victory for the University of Texas, a federal appeals court Friday dismissed a lawsuit seeking to reverse the school’s removal of Confederate statues from the South Mall in 2017.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower-court ruling that said the Texas Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and several members lacked standing to sue UT over the removal.

The appeals court came to the same conclusion in a similar lawsuit by the Sons of Confederate Veterans that sought to force San Antonio to return a Confederate monument and two cannons that had been removed from a city park.

Members of the organization argued that they have unique ties to the Confederacy and the monuments, which express their political viewpoint in such a way that the statues’ removal and relocation violated their free speech rights.

But the appeals court rejected that argument, saying those who sued, though descendants of Confederate veterans, failed to show that they suffered a particular and concrete injury by the removals.

"Though these ties might give Plaintiffs strong reasons to care about these monuments, Plaintiffs fail to explain how these ties (provide) a First Amendment-based stake in the outcome of this litigation," Judge Edith Clement Brown wrote for the panel in a ruling released Friday evening.

Members of the organization failed to show how their ties to the Confederacy elevated the monuments to elements of their speech that deserve First Amendment protection, placing the members "in the same position as any enthusiastic onlooker," Brown wrote.

"Plaintiffs have shown only a rooting interest in the outcome of this litigation, not a direct and personal stake in it," she added.

UT President Gregory L. Fenves authorized the removal of statues of three men with Confederate ties — Robert E. Lee, Albert Sidney Johnston and John Reagan — and Gov. James Stephen Hogg from UT’s South Mall in 2017 after white supremacist demonstrations in Charlottesville, Va., turned violent.

The statues of Lee, Johnston and Reagan were placed in storage. The Hogg statue was later relocated to another spot on campus.

Days after the statues were removed, members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans sued Fenves, arguing that the university improperly restricted political speech and breached an agreement with the estate of Maj. George Washington Littlefield, who donated the statues in 1921.

U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel of Austin dismissed the lawsuit in June 2018, and the organization appealed.

That appeal was consolidated with the organization’s lawsuit against San Antonio, leading to Friday’s ruling.