Richmond judge extends order blocking removal of Robert E. Lee statue

• The lawsuit seeking to stop the statue's removal was brought by the great-grandson of two signatories of the 1890 deed that transferred ownership of the land surrounding the statue to the state of Virginia.
• It argues that the deed required the state to consider the monument "perpetually sacred."

Why it matters: Virginia has been at the center of a longtime national debate about whether Confederate monuments should be displayed publicly. That discussion reached a boiling point when protests over a statue of Lee in Charlottesville turned violent in 2017.