Mississippi man sues Bryant over state flag
Attorney Carlos Moore filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to do away with Mississippi’s current flag.
Moore filed the lawsuit against Gov. Phil Bryant. It asserts the state flag violates the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the 14th Amendment and could incite violence similar to the shooting in South Carolina.
“I got sick and tired of being a second-class citizen,” said Moore of the reason he filed the complaint.
"Time is of the essence for the removal of the current state flag from all public display on public lands and adoption of a non-discriminatory state flag because there was a recent mass killing ... by a young white supremacist who was a Confederate battle flag sympathizer and militant.
"... Similar violent conduct could occur any day in Mississippi," the complaint continues.
Moore said he began researching options after several flag bills in the Legislature died last week by deadline. House Speaker Philip Gunn, who had called this summer for changing the state flag, said recently he could not find consensus in the House to move a bill forward.
Mississippi is currently the only state with a flag displaying the Confederate emblem flying over its statehouse.
A spokesman for Bryant called the lawsuit a "frivolous attempt to use the federal court system to usurp the will of the people."
Mississippians voted in 2001 to keep the current state flag via a statewide referendum. Bryant said last year while he's not pushing for a change to the flag, 2016 would be a good year for another referendum on the issue.
Moore's lawsuit cites last year’s Supreme Court ruling that declares states’ bans on same-sex marriages unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment.
Constitutional law expert Matt Steffey said there are some issues with Moore's legal claims.
"The 14th Amendment is not usually read to be concerned with symbolic matters, and the flag is by definition a symbol," Steffey said. "And while the lawsuit attempts to tie this to violence, at least in a courtroom, there's no way to establish that."
But Moore said he believes his argument is solid.
“I’m convinced that the flag violates due process,” Moore said. “ … It (the flag) is government speech, and it is hate speech.”
Contact Kate Royals at (601) 360-4619 or kroyals@jackson.gannett.com. Follow @KRRoyals on Twitter.