Miss. judge jails attorney for not reciting pledge

Sun Herald ^ | Oct 7, 2010 | Associated Press Writer

[Islander7]

A Mississippi judge jailed a lawyer for several hours for refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, ordering the attorney to "purge himself" of contempt by standing and repeating the oath like the rest of the courtroom.

[Islander7]

[Judge] Littlejohn is running unopposed for re-election in November.

Littlejohn is a former state lawmaker. He ran for a congressional seat as a Democrat in 1996 . . .

[Islander7]

Magnolia State Ping!

Mississippi; home of the last sane democrat judge in the nation!

[The Sons of Liberty]

He should've thrown away the key!

A PROUD MISSISSIPPIAN in exile.

[Raider Sam]

Is this Constitutional?

[BuckeyeTexan]

What? This is the U.S. We don’t jail people for refusing to pledge allegiance.

[earlJam]

I would stand and say the Pledge voluntarily anywhere.

But if a government official forced me to do it or go to jail, I would go to jail.

[Kartographer]

Islander7 put this on you are going to need it! And Believe me I KNOW!!

[WKUHilltopper]

No.

[Vendome]

Violation of 1st amendment?

[Mila]

Judge Talmadge D. Littlejohn

[fml]

Sane democrat Judge??

Sounds like a typical liberal judge ignoring the constitition because he can.

[MarkL]

He should've thrown away the key!

A PROUD MISSISSIPPIAN in exile.

While I think the lawyer is an a$$, the judge is a tyrant, and needs to be bitch-slapped by the voting public!

The Pledge of Allegiance is a pledge or an oath. Do you really want a judge demanding under penalty of law that you take an oath? Maybe with the politics you agree with, but what about if a judge that Obama appoints demands that you take an oath to swear fealty to Obama, or something else equally offensive?

Mark

[Sequoyah101]

I don’t care if it is Constitutional or not. At least it is the right thing to do unlike other things being done rampantly by the left that are NOT Constitutional.

[LonelyCon]

At a minimum, the lawyer should send the judge a bill for the five hours of his time that he was forced to spend in jail at the hands of this tyrant. I pledge allegiance to a flag that stands for a nation that honors the freedom of speech, which includes the freedom not to speak.

[MarkL]

I couldn't agree with you more! Somebody needs to send this judge a copy of Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance!

Now that I think of it, it needs to be sent to that idiot lawyer too. Maybe he'd say it if he understood what's behind it!

Mark

[Buckeye McFrog]

looks like we’ve just found President Palin’s first SCOTUS nominee...

[The Sons of Liberty]

I agree with your point, in principle, but if the shyster wants to appear any Court in The United States of America he should pledge allegiance to this Country. I think that if he has been admitted to the bar he has previously sworn to uphold The Constitution.

[bgill]

More proof that RATS have lost their minds. While I’m all about the pledge, since when does our government have the right to throw people in jail for not saying the pledge?

[BocoLoco]

Listen to yourselves in here. This man is a fascist and is forcing false allegiance. We do no pledge our allegiance to any flag or any republic.

We pledge our allegiance to the People of the United States and the Constitution that protects them!!!. The pledge was, is, and always will be allegiance to the republic, which is Unconstitutional as the republic is the government, not "We the People". Flags come and go. Republics come and go. The only thing that remains is US. That's what makes us citizens. The framing fathers ensured we didn't swear ourselves as subjects to any governing body. I suggest we honor this.

[Cicero]

I feel conflicted on this. On the one hand, you can’t normally MAKE someone recite the pledge of allegiance.

On the other hand, this judge evidently considers it to be not unlike a witness putting his hand on the Bible and swearing to tell the truth.

He is asking the lawyer to pledge allegiance to our country and its laws, and not be just another shyster who lies for money. Is that unreasonable? Not terribly.