The Caddo Parish Commission voted 7-5 last week to remove a monument to Confederate soldiers at the Caddo Parish courthouse. The United Daughters of the Confederacy filed a lawsuit to stop the monument’s removal hours after the vote.

From the Shreveport Times:

The non-profit organization that erected Caddo Parish’s Confederate monument has filed a lawsuit to stop its removal.

The Shreveport chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy filed its lawsuit Thursday evening, soon after the Caddo Parish Commission voted, 7-5, to remove the monument from the grounds of the parish courthouse at 501 Texas St.

Lawyer Dick “Dave” Knadler of Mansfield, representing the UDC, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Shreveport. Federal courts permit after-hours filing.

The lawsuit seeks an injunction to bar the monument’s removal.

The United Daughters of the Confederacy is a non-profit organization whose members must prove a blood relative served in the armed forces or the civil service of the Confederate States of America.

The organization erected the Caddo monument in 1906 on the north side of the courthouse with the permission of the Caddo Parish Police Jury, predecessor of today’s Caddo Parish Commission.

Caddo Parish’s decision to remove the monument comes in the wake of the removal of four Confederate monuments in New Orleans. A bill that would’ve blocked the removal of Confederate and other monuments was defeated in the Louisiana Legislature this year.

According to Nola.com, the UDC is claiming that they own the property that contains the monument and the parish has no authority to remove it.

Inevitably, there will be more fights over Confederate monuments all across Louisiana and the South. Ultimately, a decision will have to be made to protect these monuments.