Attorney seeks to revive lawsuit against Mississippi flag

JACKSON, Miss. – A Mississippi attorney is trying to revive his lawsuit challenging the Confederate battle emblem on the state flag.

Carlos Moore filed notice Wednesday that he will appeal a federal judge’s decision that dismissed the suit.

Moore had argued the emblem is an unconstitutional vestige of slavery. While U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves wrote that the flag’s history is inextricably tied to slavery, he ruled Thursday that Moore failed to show a “cognizable legal injury.”

Reeves considered pretrial arguments, and Moore says he will ask the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to require Reeves to hold a full trial.

The Mississippi flag has had the Confederate emblem since 1894, and voters chose to keep it in a 2001 referendum. It is the last state flag to feature the rebel X.