Why is Mayor Mutz still using taxpayer money to defend the moving of the cenotaph from Munn Park? -

Can’t find we find a proper solution to this issue that plagues this city.

A group that advocates for preserving Confederate monuments is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to consider its appeal of a lawsuit against Lakeland over the removal of a monument from Munn Park.

Save Southern Heritage Florida held a news conference Friday morning in Munn Park to announce that it has requested that the Supreme Court consider the case. A United States District Judge dismissed the lawsuit in 2019, and an appeal moved to U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year.

That court also rejected the appeal.

The United Daughters of the Confederacy erected the cenotaph in Munn Park in 1910 at a time when many southern cities were installing such monuments. In the lawsuit, Save Southern Heritage and a group of citizens argued that moving the monument violated the First Amendment right to free speech.

Munn Park Cenotaph plaintiff’s attorney, David McCallister, announced today that the plaintiffs in the case are asking the US Supreme Court to weigh in on their Federal Lawsuit against Mayor William “Bill” Mutz, the City of Lakeland, and others over the removal of the historic monument from Historic Munn Park.

The City argued in their response to the lawsuit that they were justified in moving the monument based on a Supreme Court Decision, Summum v. Pleasant Grove. Summum was a 2009 decision that created the “Government Speech Doctrine”.

“Summum is the get of jail free card” woke politicians on the cancel culture bandwagon are using to move these historic monuments” McCallister added.

“There are several complaints we have against Mutz and the City but we are directly challenging Summum” he said.

McCallister noted that the court is not obliged to hear the case but “as far as we know, it is the only case we know that is challenging Summum”.

Several of the plaintiffs were on hand to comment on the case as well as City of Lakeland Mayoral challenger candidate Saga Stevin. Ms. Stevin said “this is about First Amendment rights….free speech for everybody”.

McCallister concluded by distributing copies of the Petition for Writ of Certiorari calling it an “appetizer” for the Court to consider hearing the case.

The event concluded with a rousing strain of “God Bless America” by the participants.