Gerald L.K. Smith, head of the America First Party, was yesterday sentenced to sixty days imprisonment for contempt of court. The charge arose from his issuance of a statement attacking the jurisdiction of the court during a disorderly conduct trial in which Arthur Terminiello, suspended Alabama priest, was convicted and fined.
The original disorderly conduct charges filed against Terminiello, Smith, and Fred Kister, Smith’s aide resulted from a meeting organized and addressed in Chicago by the three. Terminiello and Smith’s publicity agent, Don Lohbeck, still await sentencing on the contempt of court charge.
In sentencing Smith, Judge John V. McCormick said: “If the conduct of you and your associates in and toward an American court of law affords a test of your attitude toward other American institutions, it behooves Americans to look squarely at the philosophy which confronts them.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
