Just when we thought it was safe to declare: “Mississippi has changed, we’re no longer living in the past and trying to live by our own set of rules,” ignorance reared its hard, ugly head.

A bill proposed in the Mississippi House of Representatives would have allowed the State of Mississippi to nullify federal laws that its citizens don’t like.

Who wouldn’t like to just decide which laws to follow and which could be ignored?

Clearly such a bill would go against the U.S. Constitution’s supremacy clause, which puts forward that the Constitution, federal treaties and statutes are the supreme law of the land. In layman’s terms, states cannot decide to ignore federal laws.

Common sense does, sometimes at least, win out over ignorance even in Mississippi government.

Fortunately, the bill was killed before it ever made it out of committee.

Unfortunately, the bill hung around long enough to garner some national attention — read: ridicule.

Mississippi lawmakers should realize that everything they do is under not only the microscope of constituents, but also national scrutiny, too.

Mississippi has enough problems overcoming the stigma of its past without ignorant lawmakers thinking they can repeat the mistakes of the past without repercussions.