In a parting shot to the city of Memphis or any other municipality that would use a legal loophole to remove Confederate statues, the Tennessee General Assembly passed a bill that makes it harder to get around the law.
The Legislature approved a measure on Wednesday that would bar cities from selling or transferring property that has historic memorials without permission from the Tennessee Historical Society or a court.
Memphis was able to get around Tennessee law in December when the city sold two parks to a nonprofit organization that swiftly removed statues of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, who was a slave trader and early leader in the Ku Klux Klan.
Lawmakers in Tennessee's Republican-dominated Legislature had vowed to punish Memphis afterward.
