Woke Fed Judge Sides With Agitators in Tyrrell Co. (NC)
Judge allows Tyrrell Confederate monument lawsuit to move forward
(I wonder who provided the money and legal assistance for this judge-shopping expedition. A Federal suit ain’t cheap! - DD)
A federal judge will allow a Tyrrell County group to move forward with its lawsuit against a 123-year-old Confederate monument outside the county courthouse. A court order Wednesday allowed one of two pieces of the lawsuit to proceed.
The Concerned Citizens of Tyrrell County, a group of mostly “elderly Black residents,” filed suit in May 2024 against the county. An amended complaint from September 2024 asked for the removal or covering of one phrase engraved on the monument. It says “in appreciation of our faithful slaves.”
Critics argued that the county’s refusal to address the monument’s offending phrase violated the plaintiffs’ right to equal protection of the laws and the equal right to hold property. Tyrrell County filed a motion in October 2024 to dismiss the lawsuit.
US District Judge James Dever’s order this week allows the equal protection complaint to move forward. Dever dismissed the equal-right-to-hold-property claim.
“[P]laintiffs plausibly allege that the ‘faithful slaves’ engraving has a racially disproportionate impact on black residents of Tyrell County,” Dever wrote. “Tyr[r]ell County provides no contrary argument. Plaintiffs also plausibly allege that an invidious discriminatory intent motivated Tyr[r]ell County to install the ‘faithful slaves’ engraving in 1902.”
Dever rejected the county’s argument that a 2024 state court ruling about a Confederate monument in Alamance County prevented any action to remove or change the…