State flag opponent asks U.S. Supreme Court to hear his case

Carlos Moore is taking his arguments against the Mississippi state flag to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Associated Press reports.

Moore, a black attorney in Grenada, filed papers Wednesday that the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves were wrong to reject his argument that the flag is a symbol of white supremacy which harms him and his young daughter by violating the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection to all citizens. The Confederate battle emblem from the Civil War is emblazoned in a corner of the flag. Critics say the symbol is racist. Supporters say it represents the state’s history.

Moore’s attorneys wrote that under the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling against Moore, “a city could adopt ‘White Supremacy Forever’ as its official motto; or a county could incorporate an image of white hooded figures and a noose hanging from a tree into its county seal; or a state could incorporate a Nazi swastika, as an endorsement of Aryan/white supremacy, in its state flag.”

October is the earliest that the Supreme Court will say whether it will take the case.