A federal judge ruled that Arlington National Cemetery may proceed with removing a Confederate monument after pausing the effort earlier this week.

Judge Rossie Alston of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia issued an order on Tuesday vacating the injunction he had placed on the cemetery to halt the removal of the monument, saying in a court filing that the plaintiffs failed to show how removing the monument would disturb the grave sites.

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"The information and pictures provided in the Yates Declaration demonstrate that Defendants are taking protective measures and that Plaintiffs’ complaints regarding the removal efforts being likely to damage the gravesites are misinformed or misleading. The Court also personally visited the Memorial and it was clear to the Court that Defendants were making every effort to protect and respect the surrounding gravesites," Alston wrote in his order.

He also claimed that the plaintiffs failed to show "public interest" in the preliminary injunction blocking the monument from being removed.

"This is especially clear where Congress directed that the Secretary of Defense create the Naming Commission specifically to evaluate the removal of monuments that commemorate the Confederate States of America and to implement the Naming Commission’s recommendations," he wrote. "At oral argument, Plaintiffs argued that it is in the public interest to leave the Memorial in place, but this is contrary to what Congress directed Defendants to do in establishing the Naming Commission and again reveals that the true purpose of this lawsuit is to achieve here what Plaintiffs could not achieve before Judge Howell."

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The cemetery said in a statement that it would "resume the deliberate process of removing the Confederate Memorial from Arlington National Cemetery immediately. While the work is performed, surrounding graves, headstones and the landscape will be carefully protected.”

Several Republicans expressed their outrage over the statue's removal, arguing it represented reconciliation and national unity after the Civil War. Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) has made plans to relocate the statue to the New Market Battlefield State Historical Park.