A judge has halted the removal of a Confederate memorial at Arlington Cemetery

A federal judge issued an injunction temporarily halting work to remove the memorial as part of the military's efforts to remove symbols memorializing the Confederacy.

Workers at the Confederate Memorial, erected in 1914, at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday.

On Tuesday, the judge allowed the expulsion to proceed.

Hours after workers began removing a towering Confederate memorial from Arlington National Cemetery on Monday, a federal judge ordered a temporary halt to work to dismantle one of the nation's most famous Confederate monuments on public land.

The memorial has been criticized for its distorted depiction of slavery, and the plan to remove it from the nation's most famous cemetery is part of a military-wide program to remove Confederate symbols from bases, ships and other facilities. Dozens of Republican lawmakers opposed the memorial's removal.

On Monday, as work to remove the monument was just beginning, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order requested by a group called Defend Arlington.

A group affiliated with an organization called Save Southern Heritage Florida filed a lawsuit Sunday against the Department of Defense in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, arguing that the Pentagon rushed its decision to remove the monument and that it circumvented federal law by failing to prepare an environmental impact statement. The statement also said the work could damage surrounding graves and headstones. A hearing on the matter has been set for 10 a.m. Wednesday.

Protective fencing was placed around the memorial over the weekend, and a cemetery spokeswoman said the removal work, which was supposed to take several days, began Monday morning but was halted after a judge's order.

"The Army is complying with the injunction and has stopped work that began this morning," the spokesman said in an e-mailed statement.