An Escambia County judge has tossed a lawsuit challenging the removal of Pensacola’s Confederate monument out of court.
Several groups, including Save Southern Heritage Inc. Florida Chapter and Ladies Memorial Association, sued the city to attempt to block the monument’s removal in 2020, an effort that failed, but they continued pressing the lawsuit to try to force the city to restore the monument.
Escambia County Circuit Court Judge Jan Shackleford ruled Friday that the city did not violate any of the groups’ rights when it removed the statue and that the groups were not harmed by the removal of the monument.
“Plaintiffs may be unhappy that they can no longer view the memorial, but that does not mean Plaintiffs have been deprived of a right,” Shackleford wrote.
Save Southern Heritage Inc. Florida Chapter has been involved in challenging the removal of other Confederate monuments around the state, but all of the cases so far have resulted in rulings similar to the one on Friday.
When the case was filed in 2020, Pensacola had it transferred to federal courts because it dealt with First Amendment issues.