Trump-Appointed Federal Judge Halts Destruction of Arlington’s Confederate Memorial

A federal judge nominated by President Donald J. Trump issued a stay Monday delaying the Army from stripping the bronze statue and bronze elements from the Confederate Memorial that has stood over the more than 400 graves of Confederate soldiers and their wives at Arlington National Cemetery’s Section 16 since 1914.

Georgia Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde, who has been leading Capitol Hill opposition to the desecration of the war memorial, also known as the Reconciliation Monument, X-posted news of the stay: “BREAKING: Trump-appointed Judge Rossie Alston has issued a temporary restraining order halting the removal of the Reconciliation Monument at Arlington National Cemetery.”

In his ruling, Alston said he was concerned by the plaintiffs’ charge that the Army violated the National Environmental Policy Act.

The judge, who sits in the Eastern District of Virginia, was Trump’s second African-American appointment to the federal bench; he serves in a court known as the “Rocket Docket” because of the reputation of its judges to make quick decisions.

Alston said he was also concerned about the damage the deconstruction inflicts on graves: “The plaintiffs have alleged that in addition to the removal of the memorial, defendants have failed to take care of the gravesites surrounding the memorial as the process of removal is underway.”

Rossie said the hearing on the lawsuit would be held Dec. 20 at 10 a.m., and his stay would expire at 5 p.m. that day. 

The Army, which operates Arlington, was set to dismantle the memorial Monday to beat the Jan. 1 deadline set by the Pentagon’s Naming Commission. The commission has a charter from Congress to eliminate all references to the Confederacy from all Defense Department assets, including street names, bases, ships, and even quotes and mottos attributed to men who served in the Confederate military.

In its charter, Congress expressly forbade the commission from disrupting graves or grave markers, but the commission ruled that the bronze elements of the memorial constituted a tribute to the Confederacy, so that program should be dismantled, leaving the stone base as the grave marker. 

Section 16 is a unique area in the cemetery, deliberately. That is why the graves are laid out in circles, unlike the straight rows everywhere else in the cemetery. Also, the white tombstones are pointed at the top, not rounded, as are all the tombstones for soldiers who served in the US military. 

WMAL producer and weekend host Corey Inganamort told The Maine Wire he walked to the memorial Monday morning on his way to the studio.

“It was funny. A police officer stops me at first. I was walking along one of the roads that cuts through the cemetery, and they blocked off the section,” the New Jersey native said. “I asked the office: ‘Can you explain to me why I can’t walk this way?’ He is like: ‘No, I’m not allowed to tell you,’ that’s what he told me.”

Inganamort said he thanked the officer and walked to Section 16 by another route.

“I walked right up to the fencing where they had it all blocked off,” he said. 

“There were about 25 construction men all just sitting around as the stereotypical construction men, all watching this one guy move on a lift, and I couldn’t tell exactly what he was doing, but he was, I guess, getting a close look at what work needed to be done.”

The producer said he stuck around for about 45 minutes, watched the men put a crane in position, and was surprised there was not more of a crowd.

“My general thought is we’re deleting history,” he said.

“The left wants to erase its leftist roots, its previous support of slavery,” he said. “The left wants no documentation of that existing ever again.” 

James Ronald Kennedy, the chief of heritage operations for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, told The Maine Wire the SCV sued the Army in federal court to stop the monument’s destruction, but its suit was combined with Defend Arlington’s suit at the request of the Justice Department.

Kennedy said he is anxious about the hearing because it seems like the entire system and culture in the United States is mobilized against Southerners and guardians of Southern culture and traditions. 

“Their aim is not just to attack the South,” he said. 

“We are the low-hanging fruit because the South has no one to defend it,” he said.

“We are the only group in America that are not allowed to defend or to define what our heritage is,” he said. “We are forced to allow those who hate us to define who we are.”

Kennedy said when he looks around, he sees leftists bent on destroying Western civilization.

“I’m not shocked, I’m not dismayed, I’m angry, but there’s just so much you can do about it at this point in time,” he said. 

“They will continue. They’re not going to stop with getting rid of Confederate monuments, Confederate icons,” Kennedy said.

“Their aim is to destroy all of Western Christian Judeo-Christian civilization that made us the freest, most prosperous area of the world,” he said.

“They’ve removed Christopher Columbus. They removed Lewis and Clark and Teddy Roosevelt of all things,” he said. 

“They’ve even removed monuments of Abraham Lincoln—now, I’m not going to get heartbroken over that, but the principle is still the same. It should remain where it was placed by the people who placed it there,” he said.
 
Inganamort said he is also worried that once the left successfully removed the Confederate Memorial and other remnants of the Confederacy, they will keep going.

“I’m worried that this is just the start,” he said. 

“What’s to say they won’t start uprooting bodies that are buried?” he asked. 

He said people tell him it will be alright and that as long as history is recorded in books, it cannot be lost. 

“In my opinion, history books are a lot easier to change than memorials that are made of bronze,” he said.  

“I feel like this is the best way to tell history is through memorials and statues that are never removed.”