Alabama Guv Sued For Removing Confederate Flag From Capitol Grounds

An Alabama attorney is suing Gov. Robert Bentley (R) for allegedly exceeding his authority when he ordered state workers to remove Confederate flags from the state capitol grounds last month.

AL.com reported that Melvin Hasting, an attorney based in Cullman, Alabama, filed suit Tuesday in Montgomery County Circuit Court against Bentley, the Alabama Historical Commission, and that agency’s acting director, Lisa Jones, with the aim of returning the Confederate flags to the war memorial from which they were taken.

The suit alleged Bentley “overstepped his authority” in ordering the flags’ removal from the war monument, according to the report. Hasting’s suit also alleged that the Alabama Historical Commission abandoned its duty to “promote and increase knowledge and understanding of the history of this State,” per state code.

Bentley had told reporters at the time that removing the flags was “the right thing to do,” adding that the issue “had the potential to become a major distraction” during budget negotiations. The governor also assured reporters that he made sure there was nothing in state law that prevented him from ordering the flags’ removal.

Bentley’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment from AL.com on the flag issue.

The Confederate flag flap in Alabama follows South Carolina state lawmakers’ vote to remove the flag from state capitol grounds there, weeks after a white gunman massacred nine black churchgoers in Charleston. The gunman, who had white supremacist leanings, had been photographed posing with the Confederate flag prior to the attack.