In a quest to save the Democratic Party founder and slave-owner Andrew Jackson monument, which sits at the heart of New Orleans, Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s city attorneys claim they have the right to pick and choose which historical monuments in the city are “racist” or “hateful.”

As a response to Tulane University Professor Richard Marksbury’s lawsuit against the city, where he demands that if four historical monuments are removed by the city, then why not Democrat Andrew Jackson’s monument?

Marksbury’s lawsuit is primarily to call the Landrieu administration out for their selective outrage towards particular monuments that they say project racism.

In a filing with a US District Court, though, Landrieu’s attorneys go for an all-out power-grab, arguing that the city administration does have the right to pick and choose their outrage, according to NOLA.com. 

“Marksbury seeks to fulfill his own dire prophecy by opening Pandora’s Box himself,” city attorneys wrote in the filing. “By forcing the city to choose between removing all monuments or removing none, he hopes to create an untenable choice that ultimately saves the Confederate statues.”

Landrieu’s attorneys claim that Marksbury’s lawsuit is “tongue-and-cheek,” and goes onto say that if residents don’t like what the city administration and City Council has done with their votes to remove Lee Circle and other monuments, they should vote them out of office.

In the past, the Hayride has called for Landrieu to denounce his own party affiliation, the Democratic Party, which fought for the enslavement of black Americans, founded the Ku Klux Klan and fought against every Civil Rights bill before the 1960’s.