Mississippi state flag might offend black Americans but doesn’t violate their civil rights, state tells U.S. Supreme Court

Published 12:03 pm Thursday, October 19, 2017

Displaying a Confederate emblem on the Mississippi state flag might offend black Americans, but it isn’t a violation of their civil rights, the state said Wednesday in a response to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Lawyers representing Gov. Phil Bryant said Carlos Moore—an African-American Mississippi attorney who asked the Supreme Court to revisit his lawsuit over the flag and deem it unconstitutional—has failed to show evidence of the flag causing harm.

Arguing that citizens are exposed to plenty of potentially offensive symbols on a regular basis, state lawyers concluded the lawsuit against the state of Mississippi could create problems in which anyone “could challenge any government action, display, monument, or speech he or she views as offensive or as unduly favorable to another, by simply alleging what cannot be disproved—namely, that he or she suffers denigration, stigma, or like form of discomfiture.”

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Mississippi is the only state in the U.S. with a Confederate emblem on its flag.

Read more: Confederate Flag Doesn’t Violate African American Rights, Mississippi Tells Supreme Court