Ironic that you can lose your freedom for not reciting something about a country that touts its people’s freedom of speech.
When a Mississippi judge entered a courtroom and asked everyone to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, an attorney with a reputation for fighting free speech battles stayed silent as everyone else recited the patriotic oath. The lawyer was jailed.
Attorney Danny Lampley spent about five hours behind bars Wednesday before Judge Talmadge Littlejohn set him free so that the lawyer could work on another case. Lampley told The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal he respected the judge but wasn’t going to back down.
“I don’t have to say it because I’m an American,” Lampley told the newspaper.
The Supreme Court ruled nearly 70 years ago that schoolchildren couldn’t be forced to say the pledge, a decision widely interpreted to mean no one could be required to recite the pledge.
[...]
“I’m speechless. The judge needs a reminder copy of the First Amendment,” said Judith Schaeffer, a Washington attorney who, along with Lampley, successfully sued the Pontotoc school district in northern Mississippi in the 1990s to stop students from praying over the intercom.
[...]
The Pledge of Allegiance has faced challenges since it was published in 1892.In 1943, the Supreme Court ruled that children in public schools could not be forced to salute the flag and say the pledge. In 1954, the words “under God” were added to the pledge, when members of Congress at the time said they wanted to set the United States apart from “godless communists.”
FREEDOM: other people doing things you don’t like.
((ie: Get over yourself.))
#18 Highland Park? The last time I mentioned I lived in Highland park was last year and you weren’t around! LOL What alias did you use back then that you seemingly needed to abandon?
Anyway, my sheeple training quota for the week has already been met. My community give back program can only go so far.
Why am I not surprised that this happened in Mississippi?
I don’t think a judge has right to require anybody to lie. If the guy doesn’t mean it he ought not be required to say it.
Anyone know the history of cases where people don’t want to swear on a Bible? Considering how much dirt religions have perpetrated, involving scripture might influence the witness to lie.
I think it would be better to make people talk about something that is important to them, and then swear on that.
#2 Dallas
I think your first post was a little unclear, so best not to attack quick. ‘Restoring the Constitution’ could mean a lot of things depending on who is talking.
#25 Hmm, somehow I don’t find my point vague given the topic I’m responding to. If there was a literal interpretation of the sentence without context, I suppose.
I suppose “restore the Constitution” could mean bringing removing those stains and blotches it has to many in here.
This judge should be removed immediately. He obviously is not qualified to interpret the laws of this country.
#26
RFK as attorney general sent national guard troops into the South to enforce civil rights. If “Yahoos” are calling for more troops being sent to the South wouldn’t that make the left the Yahoos? Ignorant Southerners probably aren’t calling on the feds to come and regulate themselves…
Initially I thought you were saying that the South wanted to send troops to the north(something that I’m sure would warm many Southern hearts).
Every political group identifies itself with protecting the Constitution. Their conceptions of what that means depends heavily on which sections they like.
A glittering generality tied to a historical example and an reference that could be to multiple groups. I’d say that is unclear.
What’s far worse. Five successive US Presidents, who lied about our involvement in the Vietnam War? Or one guy in court, who just don’t feel up to singing along with the Judge that day? There temporarily elected little tin pot dictators, we call Judges, ought to be held accountable for their occasional abuses of power and position. But for the sake of the joke an institution we call our legal system. Such abuses usually get overlooked, and covered up. My favorite Al Pacino movie is “And Justice for All”. Partly for this very reason.
#29 Glenn,
Judge: “You’re out of order”
Pacino’s character: “No, you’re out of order!”