Well, it was a good idea while it lasted.

I’m referring to the removal of public monuments of known racists.

But the law—in that comfortable cradle of great virtue the world knows as Charlottesville, Va.,—has prevailed.

And it’s the celebration of racist business as usual.
On Wednesday, a judge in the fair, ahem, city ruled the controversial statues of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and Gen. Stonewall Jackson must stay where they are.

A Virginia state judge has ruled the city of Charlottesville cannot move two Civil War statues that were at the center of the riots in 2017.

After Judge Richard Moore issued his ruling Wednesday, plaintiffs that argued in defense of the statues are requesting $604,000 to cover attorney fees, plus $500 for each plaintiff.

The Charlottesville City Council voted unanimously in 2017 to move the statues after a Unite The Right rally for white supremacists led to riots and clashes between protest groups, in which one person was killed.

A Virginia judge has blocked efforts to remove the statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee that was at the center of the deadly violence that erupted in Charlottesville in 2017.

In a ruling issued this week, Judge Richard E. Moore said that any effort to remove the Lee statue would violate a state historic preservation statute and issued a permanent injunction preventing its removal. His decision extended to a separate monument to Confederate general Stonewall Jackson that city leaders and local activists had hoped to get rid of.