Mississippi Judge Jail Attorney For Not Reciting Pledge! Scary...

Miss. judge jails attorney for not reciting pledge

Published: 10/06/2010
TUPELO, Miss. (AP) - A Mississippi judge ordered an attorney to spend several hours in jail Wednesday after the attorney chose not to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in court. The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reported that Chancery Judge Talmadge Littlejohn told a court audience to rise and say the pledge. People in the courtroom said Danny Lampley of Oxford stood but did not say the words.

Records show Lampley was booked into the Lee County jail at 9:40 a.m. and released about 2:30 p.m. on the judge's orders.

Lampley did not immediately return a call to The Associated Press. Littlejohn was not immediately available through his office in New Albany or the court administrator's office in Tupelo.
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Information from: Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, http://nems360.com/

My Thoughts:
Here is another indicator of how screwed up America has become. When we start to imprison people for not reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, we are in trouble. Though pledging allegiance is an honorable thing to do to show your patriotism for your country. However, one should not be forced to recite the pledge out of fear of imprisonment, even for a few hours of your life.

Liberty should not be so easily swept aside because someone did not recite the pledge that contains an additional pledge to a deity, ", one nation under God," which some of us find disturbing, as we may not believe in a deity of any kind.

Taking an oath to telling the truth or to obey a law or perform the duties of an elected office are more out of tradition than a requirement that is punishable my imprisonment. Obviously the very act not telling the truth or failure to obey a law or to perform your duties as an elected officer, whether or not an oath was taken, does have punishments of various degrees. But a pledge to a flag does not reach the level for any type of punishment for failure to recite it.

For myself, I will stand up and pledge allegiance, but skip the ", one nation under God," part and move on. I will also stand and place my hand over my heart for our national anthem. I can even tear up when I hear it. But that's me and I don't expect others to do the same.

Does not pledging allegiance mean you are not patriotic to your country? Maybe not, maybe you are embarrassed by some of the public policies it has, like wars, and though you have a deep love of country, you express your embarrassment by not reciting the pledge. Which is no different than anti war demonstrations, and other forms of expression of displeasure with your beloved country. This form of expression or lack thereof, should not be a cause of imprisonment, period!

If a person pledges allegiance to a hostile country or organization that has declared war or assault against us, then investigation into that person should be conducted. Should the investigation show that the individual is an immediate threat to the country, they should be detained, charged of the crime and given due process of law. If found guilty of the crime, then incarceration is justified. We are a nation of law and due process of that law, as well as a nation of freedoms and liberty.

Maybe the lack of respect by the Bush administration regarding the law and specifically the due process of law in a court of law has allowed many like minded conservatives to forsake our founding principals against tyranny through imprisonment without charges and due process of law.

This judge obviously thought he had the power, and he did for awhile but not the right, to suspend this lawyer's liberties for a few hours because he did not like that the lawyer did not recite the pledge of allegiance to the flag. The fear of imprisonment for failure to pledge allegiances is in fact tyranny. There is no other way to describe this action.

Do you support this kind of mindset that tyranny is OK to force patriotism from a person? If not, then think carefully as you enter the voting booth next month. Voting conservative with the Tea Party in charge will further this type of injustice and tyrannical power over the people.