SOUTH CAROLINA: Massive Confederate flag flown over I-85 in Spartanburg down after court ruling
SPARTANBURG — Roughly four years after the Sons of Confederate Veterans raised it over Interstate 85 in Spartanburg County, a massive Confederate flag is no longer flying as a result of a court order.
The Spartanburg-based Adam Washington Ballenger Camp of the SCV — which first raised the flag on a 120-foot pole in 2022 — removed it last month ahead of a predicted ice storm. In light of the Jan. 29 order, group member and attorney Robert Merting said it will not be flown again for the time being.
But the case is still active in the S.C. Court of Appeals, and Merting said the camp will continue its fight to fly the banner, with hopes of raising it again in the near future.
The Jan. 29 order from Circuit Court Judge Mark Hayes is the latest development in a yearslong legal battle between the SCV chapter and Spartanburg County.
The camp first raised a 30-by-20-foot Confederate battle flag just off the interstate in northwestern Spartanburg County in fall of 2022.
While the symbol remains scattered across South Carolina, the massive flag on display near the state line — off a stretch of interstate that sees about 80,000 vehicles a day — quickly became a flashpoint.
Critics pointed to its connection to slavery, white supremacy and segregation, while the camp itself has argued the flag serves as a commemoration to Confederate soldiers rather than racism.
Around the same time the flag was unfurled, the county issued the SCV chapter a notice of violation.
That notice made no mention of the flag itself, but stated the property on which the pole stands has no “principal use,” such as a house, as required by county regulations. It also stated the pole should be no more than 30 feet tall.
Merting said the camp went out of its way to clear the project with the county before construction, receiving the green light from code enforcement and the Federal Aviation Commission, as well as securing a permit for electrical work, before raising the pole. The group flew the state flag the summer of 2022 without any issue, he said.
But the county argues the camp failed to contact pertinent officials in the Planning and Development Department and violated county ordinance.
The camp, meanwhile, has contended publicly that the county is targeting it because of the content of its speech rather than code violations.
The legal case has dragged on since, first at the county Board of Zoning Appeals — which sided with the camp in a 5-3 vote — then in state circuit court.
In early 2024, Hayes sided with the county, ruling the Board of Zoning Appeals had erred and that the property owner was in violation.
The camp subsequently filed a challenge to that decision in the state Court of Appeals, at which point an automatic stay went into effect, blocking the county from compelling the SCV chapter to take down the flag.
The county filed a motion in circuit court shortly after seeking to lift that stay. Hayes again ruled in the county’s favor in November, but the camp quickly challenged that decision.
In his Jan. 29 order, Hayes stated the camp’s motion was improper and that it had two options to be in compliance. The camp can remove the flag entirely or fly a much smaller one — no larger than 5-feet-by-8-feet — at a height no higher than 30 feet.
Merting said the camp will seek to overturn that decision at the appeals court level as the case progresses.
An attorney representing Spartanburg County could not be reached for comment the afternoon of Feb. 12.
–postandcourier.com
