Mississippi Lawyer Jailed for Refusing to Recite Pledge of Allegiance

"With liberty and justice for all." A Mississippi judge jailed a lawyer for several hours this week for refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, but the attorney wouldn't back down and says he's still processing the incident and trying to decide what to do next.

On Wednesday, Chancery Judge Talmadge Littlejohn told Oxford lawyer Danny Lampley to "purge himself" of contempt by standing and repeating the oath like others in the courtroom. When Lampley wouldn't budge, the judge put him in the can for 4½ hours, eventually releasing him so he could represent another client, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reported.

"I don't have to say it because I'm an American," Lampley said. "I'm just to going to back off on this." The law seems to be on Lampley's side. Way back in 1943, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that school children could not be forced to salute the flag and say the pledge.

Lampley, 49, a graduate of the University of Mississippi Law, said his telephone started ringing at 6:55 a.m. Thursday with reaction to his situation. "It's going to take me a couple of days to wrap my mind around this," he told the newspaper. "It started so early, it's been hard to get something to eat."

Littlejohn, a former state legislator, has immunity as a jurist and can't be sued, according to Ole Miss Law Professor George Cochran.