Thread by @artcrimeprof

Since the 2020 protests, thirteen state legislatures have considered bills that would make the removal of public monuments more difficult, ranging from adding a few bureaucratic hoops to flat-out prohibitions. Here's my list:

Alabama: hyperallergic.com/623101/alabama…

Georgia HB 238 (2/2021): forbids authorities from removing or concealing any publicly owned monument to any military personnel, whether of US or the Confederate States of America.

Idaho HB 65 (2021): "No… Civil War… monuments or memorials in place prior to July 1, 2021... may be relocated, removed, disturbed, or altered without approval of the legislature via concurrent resolution."

Indiana SB 187 (2/2021): state support will be withheld from political subdivisions that have failed to protect public monuments, memorials, and statues from destruction or vandalism.

Kentucky SCR7 (2021): Concurrent resolution requesting state and local officials and judiciary to dedicate resources to protecting public monuments.

Mississippi HB 120 (2021): monuments located on public property shall not be relocated, removed, disturbed, altered, renamed or rededicated unless specifically authorized by an act of the legislature.

SB 2386 (2021): would strip local officials of authority to move monuments

Missouri HB 1751 (01-05 2020): prohibits authorities from modifying, removing, or concealing any state historic military monument

HB 55 (2021): prohibits removing monuments without approval from the Missouri advisory council on historic preservation

New York Bill No. S00242: Classifies military monuments and memorials as parkland and provides that no such monument or memorial shall be alienated, developed, leased, transferred, sold or discontinued for use as a memorial site without the approval of the legislature.

New Jersey: AR 116 (2021): Opposes any reduction in size of, or level of protection afforded to, any currently designated national monument.

Ohio SB 59 (2021): Amends 149.30 and 155.99 to enact 155.28 of Revised Code to prohibit certain war relics located on public property or cemetery association property from being disposed of, and the designate this act as the Ohio Veterans' Heritage Protection Act.

Pennsylvania SB 1321 (2020): a public monument may not be permanently removed, except as specifically approved by an act of the General Assembly.

South Carolina: HB 3358 (2021): prohibits local authorities from removing a monument; any member of a local governing body who votes for such removal is guilty of a misdemeanor and must be fined twenty-five million dollars.
Similar: HB 3249 (2021) and HB 3357 (2021).

Tennessee SB 1066 (2021): requires waiver from Tennessee historical commission for the movement or alteration of a memorial to be approved by joint resolution of the general assembly

SB 1288 (2021): violation of heritage protection laws by a public official = Class C misdemeanor

Thank you to @maczpriest for doing the legwork to track down the text of these bills!

Here's the companion thread on state legislatures seeking to increase criminal penalties for damaging public monuments:

https://twitter.com/artcrimeprof/status/1365429465673785350?s=20