Kovvali on Confederate Statute Removal

Aneil Kovvali, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen, & Katz, has published Confederate Statute Removal at 70 Stanford Law Review Online 82 (2017). Here is the abstract.

Certain state governments have adopted statutes that are designed to prevent city governments from eliminating memorials to Confederate forces and leaders. Critics of these controversial statutes generally focus on the moral issue of preserving statues honoring white supremacy. This Essay highlights a different set of concerns: These statutes suppress the speech of cities while compelling them to make statements they disagree with, and they distort the political process in troubling ways. These concerns have clear echoes in constitutional doctrine, and represent a separate reason for removal of these statutes.

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