A Confederate flag displayed at the Citadel military college in Charleston, South Carolina, can keep flying despite objections that it is offensive, the state attorney general's office said on Tuesday.
A Charleston official had objected to the presence of the flag in the college's Summerall Chapel, where it has flown since 1939, and called for cutting almost $1 million in public funding from the school.
In an opinion on Tuesday, Solicitor General Robert D. Cook said South Carolina's 2000 "Heritage Act" protects "monuments and memorials honoring the gallantry and sacrifice in this state's various wars."
The law was a legislative compromise reached after years of controversy that swirled around the flying of a Confederate flag over the State House in Columbia. The act allowed the flag to be moved to a Confederate memorial on the capitol grounds.
Charleston County Councilman Henry Darby protested the flag's location at the chapel entrance of the Citadel and threatened funding cuts.
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