City Files Motion to Muzzle Attorney Known for Religious References
by Allie Martin
January 24, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Attorneys for one Mississippi city are trying to restrict a lawyer from using references to religion or God in opening or closing statements in a discrimination case. Tupelo attorney Jim Waide represents Charles Flemons, a man who claims he was fired from his job at the City of Oxford Water Department because a supervisor did not approve of his dating a white woman. The case is set for trial in U.S. District Court in Oxford next summer.
Attorneys for the City of Oxford have filed a motion in an effort to limit Waide's comments. The motion states that, in past trials, the Tupelo lawyer has made references to God and Jesus in his addresses in court and has suggested to jury members that they should let their decisions in the case be guided by their religious faith.
According to attorney Mark Fijman's motion, Waide has "while addressing the jury ... inserted prejudicial and inflammatory comments suggesting to the jury that their decision should be guided on the basis of religious belief or bias." Fijman also noted that Flemons' legal representative has in previous trials "told jurors in closing to essentially do what Jesus would do."
Waide says he has never before heard of such a pre-trial motion as this one, which seeks to bar him from any religious references, citing violation of the U.S. Constitution's much-debated "establishment clause." He believes the defendants are off base in using this church-state "wall of separation" argument to try to restrict his speech in court.
"They're saying that the Constitution requires a separation of church and state," the Tupelo litigator notes. However, he points out, "Of course, I'm a private attorney. I don't represent the government. I'm speaking for myself and speaking on behalf of a private client. And I don't think there's anything in the Constitution that prohibits this type of argument."
Waide insists that the opposing counsel's arguments against him are baseless. "The law, to me, is so thoroughly settled on the wide range of arguments you can make," he asserts, "and I don't see how they could possibly extend the separation of church and state to try to apply this when I don't work for the government."
According to a Jackson (Mississippi) Clarion Ledger newspaper report, Fijman said religious appeals and biblical arguments like those used by Waide in the past may "distract the jury from its sworn duty to reach a fair, honest and just verdict according to the facts and evidence presented at trial." Also, the news article notes, a legal scholar with UCLA's School of Law -- Professor Eugene Volokh -- said a judge can limit an attorney to sticking with secular law instead of biblical in presenting his case.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
