PITTSBORO, N.C. - The United Daughters of the Confederacy has lost a bid to put a Confederate monument back on the grounds of a North Carolina courthouse after county officials removed it.

WRAL reports Superior Court Judge Susan Bray issued the ruling Monday, more than a week after the monument was removed from the Chatham County Courthouse grounds.

The UDC had tried to block the removal. The group said a 2015 state law mandates that the statue be returned. The local chapter donated the monument to Chatham County in 1907.

The removal came months after Winston-Salem officials removed a Confederate statue from land there that had passed into private hands. Protesters have also torn down monuments at a Durham courthouse and on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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Information from: WRAL-TV, http://www.wral.com