Group loses bid to save Louisiana Confederate monument

NEW ORLEANS – A federal judge in Louisiana has refused to reconsider his order clearing the way for the removal of a Confederate monument.

U.S. District Judge Robert James of Monroe on Monday dismissed the lawsuit by the Shreveport chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which wants to keep the monument outside the Caddo (KAD’-oh) Parish Courthouse.

In his ruling last month, James said the group failed to prove it had any “private property interest” in the land where the monument sits. He also rejected arguments that parish officials had violated the group’s rights to free speech and equal protection under law.

The group has filed notice that it will go to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.