UT has authority to remove controversial Confederate statue, judge rules

AUSTIN, Texas -- A judge has denied efforts to prevent the University of Texas from removing a statue of Confederate president Jefferson Davis from the main area of campus.

During a hearing Thursday, the Sons of Confederate Veterans called attempts to remove the Davis statue a "cultural atrocity." They compared doing so to Islamic State forces destroying Middle East artifacts.

But Judge Karin Crump ruled the university has the authority to move the statue.

Activists say the nearly century-old bronze likeness of Davis highlights the university's racist past. New school President Greg Fenves recently ordered it moved to a campus museum, but allowed other Confederate symbols to remain.

Calls for the removal of Confederate symbols swept the nation in June after a young white man who embraced the banner as a symbol of white power was charged with murdering nine black people inside their historic black church in South Carolina.

A Sons of Confederate Veterans attorney said the group hasn't decided whether it will appeal.

Officials plan to move Davis' statue within a few days.