Is Judge Dorsey Playing Politics With His Position as Judge?

Judge Dorsey is attempting to bully Roanoke County into removing its Statue. The following letter was sent to us from a long time Roanoke Tea Party Supporter:

“Many of you may not have heard about the possible removal of the Confederate Memorial in Salem (it was in the news at least once) There is conflicting evidence on the issue of what our REPUBLICAN Board of Supervisors is doing and, if you are like me, you should be wary and suspicious of what our Supervisors are doing.

Judge Dorsey has entered an order that contemplates the removal of the statue.  The order incorporates certain documentation that consists of letters between him and Board Chairman Jason Peters (the order and this documentation is attached).  In those letters, the judge indicates that there is agreement between him and the Board of Supervisors that the memorial needs to be removed and the Judge is merely giving the Board time to get that done.

While I respect Judge Dorsey, I am a lawyer and I do not think he has the legal authority to remove the statue. The Judge cites no specific authority for the proposition that he has the legal authority to remove the statue.  He makes the point clearly that he is speaking for himself and not for any other judge.  One issue is the fact that the judge is issuing an order when no lawsuit has been filed, about a structure that is not on courthouse property and is even separated from courthouse property by private property owned by Roanoke College.

Did the Judge misconstrue Chairman Peters’ comments?  I have heard that is true but I don’t trust politicians by nature.  The Board needs to be transparent about what they are doing.

Contact the Board and let them know what you think.

We need to preserve our history.  The re-writing of history concerning the Civil War and the  South needs to be resisted.  Having said that, I do not oppose “contextualizing” the statue but removing it should not happen in a county where the Board of Supervisors is 100% Republican.

David Nixon”