Prosecutor: Virginia city can move Confederate monument

commonwealth’s attorney of rfolk, Virginia, says city can remove a Confederate monument, despite a state law that bars removal of war memorials.

News outlets report Attorney Gregory Underwood filed court documents Tuesday seeking to dismiss a city lawsuit that says state law infringes on its right to free speech. Underwood says that he and state Attorney General Mark Herring don’t believe law applies to city’s 80-foot (24-meter) Confederate monument of a solider nicknamed “Johnny Reb.”

1904 law initially applied to counties and was expanded in 1997. However, city’s bronze monument was erected in 1907. In 2017, Herring issued an opinion that said law didn’t apply retroactively to statues erected before law’s expansion.

It’s unclear when statue will be moved.