LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Months after city officials removed the John B. Castleman statue from Cherokee Triangle, the legal battle wages on. The group called Friends of Louisville Public Art filed an appeal to the Circuit Court in hopes of overturning a ruling that allowed the city to remove the statue back in June. 

Before city officials moved the Castleman statue, it was often vandalized. Critics took issue with memorializing the former Confederate leader and champion of Louisville parks. In June, city leaders moved the statue after years of back-and-forth on the matter.

In 2018, the Public Art and Monuments Advisory Committee created guidelines for evaluating existing and future public art and monuments in the city. In August of that year, Mayor Greg Fischer announced moving the Castleman statue in addition to one of George Dennison Prentice.

Fischer said at the time that, “While Castleman was honored for contributions to the community, it cannot be ignored that he also fought to continue the horrific and brutal slavery of men, women, and children, heralded that part of his life in his autobiography and had his coffin draped with both a U.S. and Confederate flag."

At that time, the city couldn't move the Castleman monument because it needed a Certificate of Appropriateness since it was located in the Cherokee Triangle Preservation District. The Architectural Review Committee denied the certificate in January 2019. The city appealed the decision to the Landmarks Commission which approved the monument's move in May 2019. The Friends of Louisville Public Art appealed the decision to Jefferson Circuit Court, which denied the appeal, clearing the way for the statue's move. 

That court decision is what the group is now appealing, though the statue has already been moved. The group issued this statement Friday:

"The plaintiffs in this case have filed an appeal to the Kentucky Court of Appeals appealing the orders of one Circuit Court judge. Our appeal is based on the lack of well-established state and federal requirements of due process in the Landmarks Commission process. Specifically, there were three Louisville Metro officers who voted in favor of an application to remove the statue of U.S. General John B. Castleman submitted by their employer, Louisville Metro. That is a clear conflict of interest for those officers. Without those votes, the application would have failed. The majority of non-conflicted members opposed removal of the statue.

"In addition, the Commission Chair did not allow discussion of the merits of the application by the Commission members and instructed them they had no choice but to overturn the Architectural Review Committee and to approve the application which allows Metro to remove the statue.

"Amazingly, the Circuit Court judge did not address either of these issues in his order, even when specifically asked by our Motion to Vacate his original order. Therefore, we are asking the Court of Appeals to consider these issues and reverse the Circuit Court decision."

In June, the city moved the statue to storage with plans to later move it to Cave Hill Cemetery where Castleman is buried.