American Legion group sues South Carolina for right to change plaque

[struggle4progress]

By JEFFREY COLLINS
The Associated Press
Published: Sunday, July 26, 2015 at 11:51 p.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, July 26, 2015 at 11:51 p.m.

COLUMBIA — ... A group of American Legion members in Greenwood is suing South Carolina, Speaker Jay Lucas and other officials because the legion can't change plaques on a war memorial that separate the dead from World Wars I and II into lists of "colored" and "white" without a two-thirds vote in the legislature because of the 2000 Heritage Act.

The group contends that requirement for any public monument, whether it is owned by the state or a local government, is unconstitutional.

The legion members are upset that lawmakers refused to even bring to committee this year a bill allowing them to change the monument the group owns on city land in Greenwood.

Greenwood's mayor privately raised $20,000 and bought new plaques listing the names in alphabetical order and planned a ceremony to unveil them. But before the plaques could be changed, he was threatened with arrest for violating the Heritage Act. The plaques sit at City Hall, waiting for the outcome of the case ...

http://www.goupstate.com/article/20150726/WIRE/150729764

[Jamastiene]

1. The more I hear about it, the more this "2000 Heritage Act" sounds hideous.

That is awfully drastic to require almost everyone (that 2/3s vote) to agree just to change a plaque.