Quote:So where is the legal action?  A judge sending her to jail doesn't seem appropriate to me given this circumstance.

She is actively refusing to comply with the law as her position of public office requires. That, by itself, is enough to justify a finding of contempt, but only enough to warrant a fine.

 

The reason she's in jail is that she told the judge that should would actively impede the efforts of her staff to comply with the law. At that point, the judge has two options:

1. Fine her, then allow her to go back to work the next day and continue breaking the law and preventing her staff from carrying out their lawful duties.

2. Put her in jail for a few days to allow her staff to carry out their lawful duties without her interference.

 

It's not a petty thing, and it's not something done to prove a point. It's something done because she told the judge that should would actively prevent her staff from carrying out their lawful duties. At that point, in order to make sure those lawful duties are carried out, the judge had no option but to remove her from her workplace, and the only way he had available to him to do that was to put her in jail.

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