TRI In The News

Heritage Group Sues Lexington Over Flags

January 13, 2012

From The Roanoke Times

These fans of the Confederacy refuse to surrender.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans, Virginia Division, filed a lawsuit in federal court in Roanoke on Thursday against the city of Lexington that contends the city's flags and banners ordinance, which effectively prohibits the display of flags of the Confederacy from public light pole standards in the city, violates the organization's constitutional rights and a previous court order.

While flanked by two attorneys, Brandon Dorsey, commander of Camp 1296 of the Lexington-based Stonewall Brigade of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, talked about the lawsuit during an afternoon news conference outside the Poff Federal Building in Roanoke.

Dorsey said the ordinance amendments were obviously crafted to specifically target both the flying of the Confederate flag and the Sons of Confederate Veterans and "silence what we're doing."

The lawsuit contends that the amended ordinance adopted by the city in September violates the organization's First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

In addition, attorney Thomas Strelka said the ordinance violates provisions of a 1993 federal court order that ruled Lexington could not abridge the rights of the organization's members from wearing, displaying or showing the flags of the Confederacy "at any government-sponsored or government-controlled place or event which is to any extent given over to private expressive activity." That ruling stemmed from a prohibition about displaying the Confederate flags during a parade in July 1991.

The amended ordinance specifies: "Only the following flags may be flown on the flag standards affixed to light poles in the city and no others:" — the United States flag, the Virginia flag and the flag of the city of Lexington.

Other flags previously flown from the same standards are also effectively banned. They include flags of Washington and Lee University and the Virginia Military Institute, both in Lexington, and three student fraternities.

Larry Mann, Lexington city attorney, said Thursday he had not yet seen the lawsuit.

"Without seeing the actual pleading, anything I might say would be premature and based only on assumptions," Mann said in an email.

Lexington Mayor Mimi Elrod concurred.

"There is nothing to be added to the discussions last summer and this fall that we can say at this point," she said.

However, Mann referenced an article in September by Ken Paulson of the First Amendment Center, which has offices in Nashville, Tenn., and at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

Paulson wrote that the ordinance "almost certainly passes constitutional muster." He noted, "The key is that the city did not target Confederate flags, although clearly eliminating those was the driving force in its decision. Instead, it abolished all flags from city-owned poles beyond the official flags of specific government entities."

Dorsey said Camp 1296 has about 70 members and that the Sons of Confederate Veterans has about 4,000 members statewide. He has described the Sons of Confederate Veterans as a history group with members who are descendants of men who "bled and died for this state, at its request, and ought to be remembered and honored."

Walter "Doc" Wilmore, wearing a necktie featuring the Confederate battle flag, said he is a member of Camp 1296. He traveled from Lexington on Thursday to attend the news conference and protest the ordinance, which he said is clearly unconstitutional and meant to appease a few at the expense of many.

"This political correctness just drives me nuts," Wilmore said.

"We cater to minorities" in this country, he said.

The lawsuit came on the eve of the annual Lee-Jackson Day state holiday that honors Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. Last year, the Sons of Confederate Veterans flew flags of the Confederacy from public light poles in the days preceding the holiday but had wanted to display them through the holiday and the annual Saturday parade. The city said it planned to fly flags of the United States and Virginia from the standards on those days and through the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, which bookends Lee-Jackson Day.

The Confederate flags' display embarrassed and angered some residents and visitors, who complained that the flags symbolize hatred, repression and racism and that their flying from public flag standards sullies the city's reputation. The Sons of Confederate Veterans countered that Lee and Jackson had and have strong ties to Lexington, that the city's history is inseparably linked to the Civil War and that the flags are a symbol of sacrifice, courage and Southern heritage.

Strelka and colleague Correy Diviney said the case will show that the city's reaction to the citizens' complaints was to directly target the flying of the Confederate flags.

On the night of Sept. 1, after a frequently contentious and occasionally rowdy public hearing that stretched nearly three hours, the Lexington City Council voted 4-1 to adopt the amendments to its flags and banners ordinance.

The amendments do not prohibit people from wearing, showing or carrying the Confederate or other flags or displaying them from private property.

Strelka and Diviney are from the Roanoke firm of Strickland, Diviney and Strelka. Art Strickland of the firm, as a cooperating attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, was involved in the initial federal lawsuit in 1993.

Dorsey said the group is receiving legal support also from The Rutherford Institute, a civil liberties firm based in Charlottesville.

The lawsuit asks the court to find the city council and city officers to be in contempt of court for alleged violation of the previous court order and requests the awarding of attorneys fees and costs. It also seeks compensatory and punitive damages and "further relief as may be just."