Thursday, October 07, 2010

Jailed for not reciting the pledge

Scary, scary stuff.

From Jonathan Turley.....

Mississippi Chancery Judge Talmadge Littlejohn means it when he asks everyone to stand and say the pledge of allegiance. When attorney Danny Lampley of Oxford stood but did not recite, Littlejohn threw him in jail.

Littlejohn was just honored by the Mississippi bar for 50 years in public service.

Lampley was jailed from 9:40 a.m. and released about 2:30 p.m. on the judge’s orders.

The contempt sanction is, in my view, both injudicious and unconstitutional. Requiring an attorney to recite the pledge is a violation of his free speech rights. There is no question that an attorney must comply with court orders and that a judge is given considerable leeway in running his courtroom. However, that does not include monitoring pledge recitals.


http://jonathanturley.org/2010/10/07/mississippi-lawyer-jailed-by-court-for-not-reciting-pledge-of-allegiance/

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