The Old Lack of Standing Dodge: Activists on Appeals Court Ignore Law, Squash Suit (NC)
Appeals Court rejects Pitt County Confederate monument lawsuit
Appeals Court rejects Pitt County Confederate monument lawsuit
he North Carolina Court of Appeals split, 2-1, Wednesday in rejecting a lawsuit challenging the removal of a Confederate monument from the Pitt County courthouse. The decision upheld a trial judge’s 2024 decision in the case.
County officials removed the monument from the courthouse property in June 2020 after it was damaged during a local protest.
The Appeals Court’s majority ruled that none of the seven individual plaintiffs nor two groups —Sons of the Confederate Veterans and United Daughters of the Confederacy — had legal standing to bring the lawsuit against Pitt County officials’ decision.
“As discussed previously and throughout this opinion, the individual plaintiffs are unable to establish taxpayer standing, and have failed to allege or establish standing on any other rights, injuries, or legally protected interests,” wrote Judge John Arrowood. “Accordingly, the plaintiff associations fail to satisfy the first requirement that its individuals would otherwise have standing. Although we acknowledge the purpose of the plaintiff organizations are for historical, benevolent, memorial, and educational programs, plaintiffs have failed to identify a legally protected interest in the monument. The amended complaint was…