A lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in San Antonio today accuses the City Council of attempting to silence the constitutional rights of free speech of the Sons of Confederate Veterans by removing the Confederate monument in Travis Park, and urges a federal judge to issue a restraining order to block the monument, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
"Case law shows that government actors may not enforce their own interpretation of political messages on political symbols in a public forum," the lawsuit reads.
It says issuing a Temporary Restraining Order to block the removal of the monument would 'serve the public interest.' It says the failure to issue an order would be an 'enormous benefit to third parties, as the monument to an historic event poses no actual harm.
"Indeed, the order would mark the end of the Orwellian terror that defendants are attempting to inflict on the citizens of San Antonio."
The plaintiffs, Richard Brewer, Jean Carol Lane, and the Texas Division of Sons of Confederate Veterans, blast the City for 'attempting to accelerate the removal' of the monument, and say the only way to prevent that from happening is a restraining order.
Many on City Council have said that the monument is insulting to minorities, but the lawsuit claims it is 'minority free speech' that would be abridged by removing the monument."The loss of First Amendment freedoms, for even minimal periods of time, unquestionably constitutes irreparable injury."
READ THE LAWSUIT: https://ecf.txwd.uscourts.gov/doc1/181118706962