Removing war memorials, confederate leader statues and flags has proven to be a difficult task in South Carolina due to a law passed in 2000 called the South Carolina Heritage Act, which calls for at least two-thirds of both the House and Senate to approve the removal of the monument.
However, a new lawsuit filed by attorneys Senator Gerald Malloy of Hartsville and Matthew Richardson of Columbia on behalf of Jennifer Pinkney, Howard Duvall and Kay Paterson says the act violates the Constitution in four ways including: “1) the act improperly restricts the General Assembly’s lawmaking function by placing limits on the ability to amend or repeal the law, 2) the Act violates two separate constitutional prohibitions against special laws, 3) The act disregards home rule for local government control over local matters. 4) Each violation – independent of the others- should not allow the Heritage Act to stand. To learn more, click here.