Give Thanks for Your Freedom, Son, Or I'm Sending You to Jail

I have a feeling this story will soon be national news. From the NMissCommentor, a legal blog in Mississippi:

[Attorney] Danny Lampley . . . was jailed by Chancery Court Judge Littlejohn in Tupelo for failing to recite the pledge of allegiance in open court today.  Danny was one of the local lawyers who represented the plaintiff in the Pontotoc school prayer case years ago, working with the ACLU and People for the American Way.

I'm informed that Danny rose and was respectful, but did not recite the pledge…

The order incarcerating him provides:

BE IT REMEMBERED, this date, the Court having ordered all present in the courtroom to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegience, and having found that Danny Lampley, Attorney at Law, failed and refused to do so, finds said Danny Lampley to be in criminal contempt of court.

The order states that for this, Danny Lampley "is hereby ordered to be incaraerated in that Lee County jail." The order continues:

IT IS FURTHER ORDED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED, that Danny Lampley shall purge himself of said criminal contempt by complying with the order of this Court by standing and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in open court.

I'd say it's time Judge Littlejohn turned in his robe. This is just astonishingly ignorant, arrogant, and thuggish. Oh, and illegal. It's also way illegal. Like, not even close.