JACKSON, Miss. — A federal judge said Tuesday that the Confederate emblem on the Mississippi flag is “anti-American” because it represents those who fought to leave the United States.
But U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves is not yet saying whether he will fully consider a lawsuit that seeks to eliminate the flag as a state symbol.
Reeves heard more than three hours of arguments about motions in the lawsuit that Carlos Moore, an African-American attorney from Grenada, Mississippi, filed against the state. Moore is asking Reeves to declare the flag an unconstitutional relic of slavery.
Moore argued that under the U.S. Supreme Court decision last summer that effectively legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, a majority of justices found the Constitution protects a fundamental right of dignity. Moore argued the state flag violates his dignity and that of other African-Americans.
The public display of Confederate symbols has come under sharp debate since last summer, when nine black worshippers were massacred at a church in Charleston, South Carolina. The man charged in the slayings had the Confederate battle flag in photos of him published online.
Click here to read my the lawsuit currently being heard in Mississippi.
