The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an African-American attorney’s appeal over the Confederate emblem on the Mississippi state flag.
Attorney Carlos Moore, who argued the flag is a white supremacist endorsement and wanted it declared an “unconstitutional relic of slavery,” said he’s disappointed justices rejected the case, but also not surprised saying he always knew “it was a long shot,” according to the Associated Press.
“We’re hopeful that one day the flag will come down,” Moore said. “It seems that the public sentiment continues to change, and I am confident that it will come down in my lifetime and definitely in my daughter’s.”
Moore first filed the lawsuit in 2016. Gov. Phil Bryant’s attorneys said in October 2017 while Moore’s sincerity isn’t in doubt regarding how offensive he finds the flag, the lawsuit ultimately failed to show an “allegation of discriminatory treatment.”
Bryant’s stand on the flag issue is to have a statewide vote similar to the referendum in 2001 that kept the flag flying. No public university in Mississippi flies the flag and several cities have removed it from public buildings.
Confederate symbolism has been a hot-button topic in recent years, revived by the fatal 2015 shooting of nine black church worshippers in a Charleston, South Carolina, and more recently involving the removal of Confederate statues around the nation.