A Mississippi Attorney is taking his fight to bring down the state flag to the U.S. Supreme Court. He's hoping to break new ground.
Last year Attorney Carlos Moore filed a lawsuit against Governor Phil Bryant, to bring down the state flag with the confederate battle emblem. He claims the flag is sanctioned hate speech and violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Two lower courts dismissed the case ruling Moore didn't prove he was harmed or mistreated because of the flag. In the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling Moore says it mentioned the flag doesn't mean the same thing to all Mississippians.
"The 5th Circuit calls it differential messaging. The message that my daughter and I receive is different from what Joe blow white guy receives," said Moore.
Moore says the messaging harkens to Mississippi's slavery and Jim Crow past, to make blacks feel like second class citizens. Now he's asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review his case.
"We believe we have been very much injured. We believe that the supreme court is the ultimate arbiter of the law," said Moore.
Michael Scott is Moore's attorney. He says states cannot express a preference for one religion over another nor can they select one race over another.
"The supreme court exists for the very reason that sometimes courts of appeals get things wrong. They can't take every case. We hope they'll take this one. If the do we very confident the outcome will be different," said Scott.
In 2001, a statewide vote to change the flag failed. Supporters of the flag say it's about heritage not hate. Governor Phil Bryant said in a statement, what the flag is or is not should be decided by Mississippi voters.
