Judge tosses argument that Lee statue vote violated law

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — A Virginia judge has dismissed an argument that Charlottesville violated open government law with its 2021 vote to give a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee to an African American heritage center that plans to melt it down and turn it into a piece of public art. The Trevilian Station Battlefield Foundation and the Ratcliffe Foundation, whose bids for the statue failed, are seeking an injunction to stop the statue’s destruction and relaunch the bidding process. The Daily Progress reports that attorney Richard Milnor clarified at Monday’s hearing that the statue, which was at the center of the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally, hasn’t been melted down, just disassembled. A one-day bench trial is scheduled for Feb. 1.