In a town called Liberty, Edwin Merino was stripped of his First Amendment rights.
The 30-year-old celebrity photographer was arrested in the tiny Mississippi town earlier this week after photographing Jamie Lynn Spears and her fiance at a gas station.
The Los Angeles photographer was standing 200 feet away at the time.
Nevertheless, he was charged with stalking the younger sister of Britney Spears.
Speaking of which, Merino was one of the photographers who captured Britney without panties last year.
Unfortunately for Merino, Liberty deputies did not give him the liberty to get as close to Jamie Lynn.
Merino said that although the arrest prevented him from getting a quality shot, deputies were kind enough to drive him to three ATMs so he could withdraw the $1,143 to bond out.
The Associated Press article doesn’t say whether Merino was surprised to find three ATMs in the one-horse town, which encompasses 2.1 square miles and had a population of 633 during the 2000 census, according to Wikipedia.
Like many small towns, Liberty’s central meeting point is the local Wal-Mart, which is where Merino managed to get a single shot of the young celebrity couple.
“The one picture I got was kind of by luck,” he said. “I got lucky when I saw them at Wal-Mart when I was buying deodorant.”
At least he didn’t stink up the jail cell.