York County has not received a requested South Carolina Attorney General opinion on the Confederate flag debate because of a pending lawsuit in Greenwood on whether the Heritage Act is constitutional. That means for now, the Confederate flag and pictures of Confederate generals will not be displayed in the courtroom.
The controversy has been ongoing in York County for months. A judge in York County last week dismissed a North Carolina man’s lawsuit demanding the flag and pictures be returned. After deciding earlier this year not to put the items back in the courtroom because a Confederate flag and pictures of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson are not monuments or memorials, Michael Kendree, York County’s attorney and York County Clerk of Court David Hamilton formally requested in March that the S.C. Attorney General issue an opinion.
Several people in Greenwood filed a lawsuit in 2015 saying the Heritage Act is unconstitutional after they were rebuffed in an attempt to remove a city monument that separates “white” and “colored” soldiers by race. Unfortunately, the AG’s opinion will not be coming anytime soon as the state is named as a defendent in the ongoing lawsuit.