State Withdraws Roadblock, Man Takes Wife’s Name

JACKSON — A Mississippi man has been allowed to change his last name on his driver’s license by using his marriage certificate after the ACLU complained state authorities were discriminating against him.

Robert Everhart of Pascagoula, born Robert McCarthy, says he changed his license to take his wife’s last name Wednesday after being turned away several times previously.

The ACLU sent a letter Tuesday to Mississippi Department of Public Safety Commissioner Albert Santa Cruz. It said DPS was violating state and federal law because women are routinely allowed to use marriage certificates to change their names.

DPS says it notified employees that men can use marriage certificates, too.

Everhart says he took his wife’s name because she was the only surviving child in her family and people mispronounced his old name.