Judge William Ray. (Photo: John Disney/ALM)

Alpharetta city officials were within their rights to tell the Sons of Confederate Veterans they couldn't display the Confederate battle flag in the city's 2019 Old Soldiers Day Parade, a federal judge in Atlanta ruled Friday.

U.S. District Judge William "Billy" Ray of the Northern District of Georgia held that the parade—which was inaugurated after the Civil War and originally intended to recognize Confederate soldiers—was a form of government speech and, as such, the city was within its right to bar the SCV from carrying or displaying the Confederate battle flag.

"In addition to the expansion of the parade's honorees, society has evolved since the parade's formation and no longer holds the same degree of affinity for Confederate emblems and flags that previously existed," Ray said, especially because the battle flag has become a vehicle for "viewpoints and conduct that is otherwise considered offensive today."

"The city did not want to embrace any negative messages that the Confederate flag conveys to those who find the use of the flag to be offensive," he said. "The city was also concerned about the prospect of violence that could result if the SCV carried the Confederate flag in the parade, particularly in light of recent incidents in other parts of the country."

Michael Stacy of Atlanta's Bovis, Kyle, Burch & Medlin was lead counsel for the city of Alpharetta. Timothy Kyle King of Hodges McEachern, & King in Jonesboro represented plaintiffs Richard Leake, a member of the SCV's Roswell chapter, and Alpharetta resident Michael Dean, who also wanted to fly a Confederate flag in the parade.  

The order from Ray—a former jurist on the Georgia Court of Appeals who was appointed to the federal bench by President Donald Trump in 2018—was the third this month by a Georgia court curtailing efforts to mythologize the defeated Confederacy and its symbols. On Juneteenth, DeKalb County removed a 30-foot-tall Confederate monument adjacent to the county courthouse to comply with a court order issued by Superior Court Judge Clarence Seeliger declaring it a public nuisance. On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit stripped so-called Southern heritage groups and Confederate descendants of standing in their efforts to stop the relocation of a 75-foot-tall Confederate monument in Lakeland, Florida.

Last year, Ray declined to issue an emergency temporary restraining order sought by the SCV that would have overruled the city's battle flag ban. The Alpharetta parade took place Aug. 3 without the SCV's' participation. Last December, the city council and mayor adopted a resolution saying the city would no longer sponsor or financially support the parade, according to Ray's order.

"The city has historically utilized the parade to convey their public message of appreciation to American war veterans," Ray concluded. "The city's presence in the application process, advertising, and in the parade itself leads an observer to identify the speaker as the city. The city's financial and administrative control over the parade establishes that the city had direct control over the message disseminated to the public. The voice of the parade was that of the government, and the city was within its right to restrict the SCV's use of the Confederate flag so as to portray what the city thought to be appropriate for their message."