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Silence during pledge earns jail time for attorney
NEMS Daily Journal ^ | 10/7/10 | Patsy R. Brumfield

Posted on 10/07/2010 5:29:08 AM PDT by 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at nems360.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; US: Mississippi
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To: Kartographer

The judge should be sued for every dime he has.


21 posted on 10/07/2010 6:28:00 AM PDT by stinkerpot65 (Global warming is a Marxist lie.)
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To: Kartographer

This will result in the judge no longer being a judge and the attorney a tad wealthier.


22 posted on 10/07/2010 6:45:02 AM PDT by CodeToad (Islam needs to be banned in the US and treated as a criminal enterprise.)
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To: Old Teufel Hunden

The judge can control behavior in his court that occurs in his presence. I was in court once a few days after the judge’s former court reporter died and the judge asked all the lawyers in court that morning to stand silently for a minute in honor of that court reporter. I suspect that if any lawyer there had refused to stand for some reason he might have sent us off to jail for a few hours.
If saying the pledge was customary in that court then the judge would have to maintain control of his courtroom if someone openly defied his idea of decorum.


23 posted on 10/07/2010 6:45:33 AM PDT by Controlling Legal Authority
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To: Kartographer
Do you have to be a US citizen to be a lawyer in the US court? For example, what if there was a British lawyer working for either the prosecution or defense who had a green card and passed the local bar exam, but had no intention of becoming a US citizen? Would he have to renounce his loyalty to the Queen of England to work in that court?
24 posted on 10/07/2010 6:47:51 AM PDT by KarlInOhio (Grblb blabt unt mipt speeb!! Oot piffoo blaboo...)
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To: KarlInOhio
Can a non-citizen get a license to practice law?
25 posted on 10/07/2010 7:04:26 AM PDT by Kartographer (".. we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.")
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To: Old Teufel Hunden; yldstrk
The Pledge was created in the 1890s by a socialist preacher named Francis Bellamy.

And even then it didn't include the "under God" part. That wasn't inserted until the 1950s. It is that part that some find objectionable, and while that shouldn't be used to stop recitation of the Pledge in general, it is blatantly unconstitutional to force someone to make a pledge including "under God" against his will.

26 posted on 10/07/2010 7:05:19 AM PDT by antiRepublicrat
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To: antiRepublicrat
"And even then it didn't include the "under God" part."

I have read that people who knew Francis Bellamy have said they believed he would have been against the inclusion of the "under God". I find that very ironic.
27 posted on 10/07/2010 7:13:22 AM PDT by Old Teufel Hunden
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To: Kartographer
Maybe the judge should also force the people in his courtroom to recite the pledge with the original Bellamy salute....


28 posted on 10/07/2010 7:15:35 AM PDT by Old Teufel Hunden
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To: KarlInOhio; Kartographer
For example, what if there was a British lawyer working for either the prosecution or defense who had a green card and passed the local bar exam, but had no intention of becoming a US citizen?

That's pretty much exactly how it works. He may not even have to take the bar exam if the state bar accepts his UK credentials. An officer of the court is not necessarily a position of trust under the Constitution as an officer of the military or other such position.

29 posted on 10/07/2010 7:18:26 AM PDT by antiRepublicrat
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To: Kartographer
Some offices require ONE taking of the oath of that office, that's fine. Taking on the duties of such and office is a serious matter, and and oath may well represent the seriousness and responsibility, and acts to bond the oath-takers actions to the serious duty.

That's different than an oath that is made vain (1) by having people parrot it day after day, (2) forcing it upon people who have no need for such a serious oath -- for example children in a classroom, (3) requiring it for a trivial, mundane or regular duty, (4) making an improperly worded oath -- a real oath is very carefully worded, (5) making the oath to an object or person, rather than to an ideal, or to G-d.

The Pledge of Allegiance is now and was created as a socialist indoctrination. Look it up. Francis Bellamy, Utopian Christian Socialist.

It is a bad oath in many ways. I never say it. I'll stand when it is said, and even maybe remove my hat -- but that is all. And that I only do to avoid disrupting a public meeting. If someone objected to my not saying it, I'd have to go further and refuse to stand, or remove my hat.

30 posted on 10/07/2010 7:49:42 AM PDT by bvw
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To: Controlling Legal Authority

Judges do not have absolute authority to dictate what is decorum or proper behavior.

I’ll go by the example our Founders knew — the Trial of William Penn in London, and his hat. The Judge ordered its removal as a matter of decorum and he refused.


31 posted on 10/07/2010 7:54:00 AM PDT by bvw
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To: bvw

Amen.


32 posted on 10/07/2010 11:15:26 AM PDT by NucSubs
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To: bvw

I am not saying that the judge in the courtroom has absolute authority. His decision is subject to review. What I am saying is that he has the authority to rule on actions that take place in his presence as being in contempt of court. It is entirely possible that an appellate court will determine that not reciting the pledge is not acting in contempt of court. But until that determination is made, the judge has the authority to determine what is proper courtroom decorum. For example, when I started practicing there was a dress code for court. Certainly one can argue about what does and does not constitute a violation of the dress code, but I don’t remember anyone disputing that the court had the authority to issue the rule regarding proper attire in court.


33 posted on 10/07/2010 10:24:49 PM PDT by Controlling Legal Authority
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To: Kartographer

Chancellor, chancery, is this some story out of medieval Europe with these words?


34 posted on 10/07/2010 10:34:11 PM PDT by steve86 (Acerbic by nature, not nurture)
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To: Controlling Legal Authority
I don’t remember anyone disputing that the court had the authority to issue the rule regarding proper attire in court.

I have. Rejected the Judge's order to remove my hat. Boy did he rail at me and mock me. But in the end he was afraid to do anything else. He knew I was no pushover. Had he done so?

I kinda think his career as a Judge would have ended. I'm not a man to trifle with. No Freeper should be.

35 posted on 10/08/2010 5:48:14 AM PDT by bvw
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