Add & remove active class from a navigation link

You're removing the 'active' class from the closest li's child element, and then you're adding the active class to the current a's parent li. In the spirit of keeping the active class on the anchors and not the list items, this will work for you:

    $('li a').click(function(e) {
        e.preventDefault();
        $('a').removeClass('active');
        $(this).addClass('active');
    });

The active link is the active link. There'd never be more than one link active at any given time, so there's no reason to be all specific about removing the active class. Just remove from all anchors.

Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/rq9UB/