RALEIGH- North Carolina Republican legislative leaders are urging a state commission not to grant Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's request to relocate three Confederate monuments from the old Capitol grounds.

House Republican leaders sent a memo to the North Carolina Historical Commission on Thursday, the day before the panel is to meet to consider the Cooper administration's petition to move the monuments to a Civil War battlefield 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Raleigh.

Senate leader Phil Berger also copied commission members with his letter to Cooper asking he withdraw his request. Berger argued if the commission approved the request it likely would be overturned in court.

A state law limits where the monuments can be relocated. Cooper has said moving them to the Bentonville Battlefield complies with the law.