CONFEDERATE MONUMENT - An attorney for Caddo parish sent a letter last week to the local chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy demanding the Confederate Monument in front of the parish courthouse be removed in 90 days. The letter, citing a Fifth Circuit Court ruling, says “the Parish owns the ground beneath the monument and has the right to request its removal.”
According to a report in the Shreveport Times - The Caddo commission and the United Daughters of the Confederacy have been locked in a legal battle in recent years. The group filed suit after the parish commission, in a close vote on Oct. 19, 2017, ordered the monument’s removal. The case was last heard in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The attorney for the United Daughters of the Confederacy issued a statement saying his client has a quit claim deed to the land underneath the Caddo Parish Confederate Monument. In addition, the UDC also argued on constitutional grounds of the organization’s rights to free speech under the First Amendment, to due process under the Fifth Amendment and to equal treatment under the law in the 14th Amendment.
In April, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals again rejected claims from the United Daughters of the
Confederacy after a federal judge in Monroe threw out their lawsuit last year. The case is now awaiting a hearing by the United States Supreme Court. But the Caddo Commission wants the monument removed in 90 days.
