On July 9, 2015, Mayor Mitch Landrieu put in a formal request for the City Council to relocate four confederate monuments around New Orleans.

It has now been over a year since the mayor requested the removal of the Robert E. Lee monument, the General P.G.T. Beauregard statue, the Jefferson Davis monument and the Battle of Liberty Place monument, but they are still in the same place today.

After months of deliberation, Landrieu signed an ordinance on Dec. 15 that declared the Confederate statues nuisances and called for their removal. The City Council voted six to one in favor of the ordinance.

According to officials, private dollars would fund the cost of the removal, which was estimated at about $170,000. Officials said they planned to hire local contractors to remove the statues and place them in a city-owned warehouse until they could find “a park or museum site where the monuments can be put in a fuller context.”

During the special meeting of the New Orleans City Council for the monuments, Landrieu said that the statues needed to be removed because they don’t portray New Orleans’ culture.

“Symbols matter and should reflect who we are as a people. These monuments do not now nor have they ever reflected the history, the strength, the richness, the diversity or the soul of who we are as a people and a city,” Landrieu said.

Keevy Narcisse, A‘16, history graduate, agreed that the monuments put New Orleans in a bad light.

“Monuments show who a society holds in high regard; so in my opinion, the city of New Orleans needs to do some soul searching and determine if those men who are immortalized throughout the city are really the type of people we should look up to,” Narcisse said.

The legal process for the removal of the statues was set to go into effect days after the mayor made the ordinance, but it was quickly halted by opposing forces.

Charles W. Cannon, Loyola English professor, said that the government of New Orleans is trying, but nothing is happening because there are so many people in other parts of Louisiana that have emotional ties to the monuments.

“There’s no lack of political will in New Orleans, but forces outside of New Orleans are trying to stop it,” Cannon said.

Preservationists and a chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans filed a lawsuit two days after the ordinance was passed, and U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier said that the city could not take action on the monuments until after the federal court hearing on Jan.14.

Later that month, Judge Barbier ruled in favor of the city’s plans to remove the statues.

In his ruling, Barbier said the court’s decision was not based on emotions or motivations, but whether or not the ordinance violated constitutional rights.

“The court is well aware of the emotion and passions that are involved in this case,” Barbier continued. “The court does not judge the wisdom, or lack thereof, of the actions taken by the mayor or the city.”

This victory for the City of New Orleans was met with another block, when the Monumental Task Force took the case to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeal. On March 25, the appellate court issued an order that prevented city officials from taking down the monuments until a court decision was made.

During the hearing held on Sept. 28, the Monument Task Committee and the City of New Orleans argued over who owns the property and whether or not the city council has the right to take them down. Adam Swensek, a lawyer for New Orleans, said the case is a simple one.

“This case is a simple case of whether the city has the power to remove its property,” Swensek continued. “If the city council can put it up, we can take it down.”

The court of appeals has not made a decision for or against the removal of the statues yet, but the judges are reviewing the arguments made by both sides during the hearing. Until an official decision is made, the City of New Orleans can do nothing but wait.