Silence during pledge earns jail time for attorney

NEMS Daily Journal ^ | 10/7/10 | Patsy R. Brumfield

[Kartographer]

Danny Lampley's clients usually are the ones ordered to the Lee County Jail.

Wednesday, Chancellor Talmadge Littlejohn sent the 49-year-old Oxford attorney there for refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in court.

Littlejohn urged Lampley to reconsider repeating the Pledge, as every other person in the judge's courtroom did as the day's proceedings began.

"This morning, that was the last thing on my mind," Lampley said late in the day after a child-support hearing.

At 10 a.m., Lampley was in jail garb. By 2:30 p.m., Littlejohn ordered his release and return to the Lee County Justice Center to continue their business.

[Kartographer]

Danny Lampley will soon be the STAR poster child for the ACLU!

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"David Hudson Jr., a scholar at the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University, said forcing Lampley to repeat the pledge is clearly a violation of his free-speech rights."

I have to agree with this. No one should be forced to say the pledge. That's what is great about this country. We are big enough to allow that there are Americans in it who hate America and everything it stands for.

[Ron H.]

Kudos to Chancellor Talmadge Littlejohn. Thabk you for your courage. Tough call but I support your position.

[Kartographer]

But how could you conceivable and fairly be an Officer of the Court within a Government you do not believe in?

[houeto]

Kudos to Chancellor Talmadge Littlejohn. Thabk you for your courage. Tough call but I support your position.

Jailed for not saying the pledge? No way could I support that.

[Comstock1]

I imagine it’s quite similar to being president of a country you want to run into the ground.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"But how could you conceivable and fairly be an Officer of the Court within a Government you do not believe in?"

I never said leftists were bright, only that he was allowed to hate our country. Remember, these guys are working to bring down our way of life. In order to do that, they have to work within the system they hate. Twisting our liberties as they go.

[Kartographer]

You missed my point he was an Officer of the Court he did not behave properly as an Officer of the Court therefore he was in contempt. The Judge most likely couldn't make a spectator or a plaintiff or a defendant comply, but I am thinking he could require an Officer of the Court to comply.

[Texas Yellow Rose]

Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943), the United States Supreme Court ruled that a school cannot force a student to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

Reason religious. Allegiance to God first and always.

[yldstrk]

folk that viewpoint. If you are a lawyer, you have agreed to uphold the Constitution in your oath.

[bvw]

Vile men force others to make vain pledges at penalty of life or imprisonment or other penalty.

That ANY Freeper would consider Chancellor Talmadge Littlejohn a hero for so doing that is an mockery of what Free Republic is all about.

This is America the Free!

[ThePatriotsFlag]

Geez, I better be more careful ... I replace the phrase "for which it STANDS" with "for which it STOOD" ... I have done this since socialized medicine was passed ... that, to me is the "Socialist Marker". If it stays, we are socialist, if it is repealed, we will once again have our Liberty and Freedom. My personal changing of one word still pledges my allegiance to the flag and to do the love of my country, but for the Liberty and Freedom for which it STOOD ... I will not pledge allegiance to what it stands for now.

It's a "personal" thing for me.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"You missed my point he was an Officer of the Court he did not behave properly as an Officer of the Court therefore he was in contempt."

Well, you might have a point. Does an officer of the court have to comply with saying the pledge before court starts? I don't know. Perhaps an attorney on this site can tell us. I would think that the threat should not be jail time, but a suspension of his bar license to practice law in that state. Certainly, spectators or a defendant cannot be compelled to do so.

[bvw]

That it is a Judge’s order does not make the unlawful lawful, nor the improper proper. Judge’s are men not gods.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"If you are a lawyer, you have agreed to uphold the Constitution in your oath."

Where in the constitution does it compell people to say the pledge of allegiance? The Constititution was ratified in 1791. The Pledge was created in the 1890s by a socialist preacher named Francis Bellamy.

[yldstrk]

the lawyer was being a pr8ck

yeah you are right the judge can order him to say it, but the order is not enforceable

since it is reported in a newspaper, I am betting there is something not being reported, such as the lawyer was being a pr8ck and is trying to characterize is as “being forced to say the pledge”

[Elwood P. Doud]

Nope. It reads like the judge forces everyone to.

“...as every other person in the judge’s courtroom did as the day’s proceedings began”

[Kartographer]

So should any newly elected official be forced to take the oath of office? What if he doesn't believe in the Constitution what if he is against it and don't believe in it? You are free as a citizen to protest even the Constitution? So how could you be forced to swear to protect and defend that which you do not believe in?

[Kartographer]

I am saying if he had jailed anyone other than an Officer of the Court he would be wrong, but he could jail a Officer of the Court for failure to do so.

[StonyBurk]

The part you left out is —This is true everywhere but in their presence. That being said —it would seem that if the
Officer of the Court wishes to appeal this to a higher Court -
Inmy unlearned opinion he would have a case.