Appeals court rules that Confederate monuments can come down in New Orleans

A federal appeals court has ruled that the city of New Orleans can take down three Confederate monuments that have stood in the city for more than a century.In December 2015, the city council voted to remove four monuments, including statues of Confederate figures Robert E. Lee, P.G.T. Beauregard, and Jefferson Davis, immediately triggering backlash and death threats against the contractors hired to do the job.A lawsuit filed by three historic preservation organizations and a Sons of the Co