Richmond, Va. - Virginia lawmakers have passed a bill aimed at protecting war monuments.
The new bill prevents war monuments from being moved or taken down.
Currently there is a law in The Commonwealth protecting war monuments, but a Virginia judge recently ruled it only protects war monuments built after 1998.
Now, both the House and Senate have passed a different bill, HB 587, which would protect war monuments, regardless of when they were built.
This would include monuments like the Confederate Monument in Portsmouth which caused a lot of controversy as to whether or not it should be taken down.
It was built in 1876.
While the bill protects all war monuments, it specifically states that confederate monuments may not be replaced with union ones.
The bill now heads to Governor Terry McAuliffe’s desk.
No word yet on whether or not he will pass the bill.
