Confederate Memorial Barrier Illegal, Alabama Supreme Court Says

BIRMINGHAM, AL — After a judge ruled earlier this year that the City of Birmingham was within its rights to keep a black wooden barrier around a Confederate monument in Birmingham's Linn Park, the Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that the barrier is against the law, and has ordered the city to pay a $25,000 fine.

The decision to cover the monument, spearheaded by then-mayor William Bell in 2017, was challenged by the state based on the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act, passed in August of 2017.

Judge Michael Graffeo ruled in January this year that covering the monument did not violate the law, stating, "Just as the state could not force any particular citizen to post a pro-Confederacy sign in his or her front lawn, so too can the state not commandeer the city's property for the state's preferred message."

The Alabama Supreme Court decision Wednesday reversed Graffeo's ruling. Using dictionary definitions of "alter" and "disturb" in regard to what the wooden barrier does to the monument in question, the court ruled that the city did, in fact, violate the act.

The Alabama Memorial Preservation Act prohibits "the relocation, removal, alteration, renaming, or other disturbance of any architecturally significant building, memorial building, memorial street, or monument located on public property which has been in place for 40 or more years."

In January, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall vowed to appeal Graffeo's decision, saying, "The Attorney General's Office stands by its original assessment that the Alabama Monument Preservation Act is constitutional. Therefore, we will be filing an appeal."