The Stolen Valour act

Via Yahoo News

Federal law barring lies about medals is tested

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By Dan Elliott, Associated Press Writer

DENVER – The federal courts are wrestling with a question of both liberty and patriotism: Does the First Amendment right to free speech protect people who lie about being war heroes?

At issue is a three-year-old federal law called the Stolen Valor Act that makes it a crime punishable by up to a year in jail to falsely claim to have received a medal from the U.S. military. It is a crime even if the liar makes no effort to profit from his stolen glory.

Attorneys in Colorado and California are challenging the law on behalf of two men charged, saying the First Amendment protects almost all speech that doesn’t hurt someone else. Neither man has been accused by prosecutors of seeking financial gain for himself…..

This looks pretty innocous so far but it was first written after some were using it for financial gain. Further in the article we find:

In one case, a man posing as a Marine war hero was accused of using his hero status to receive discount airline tickets and a free place to stay near Phoenix….

…..One of the men challenging the law is Xavier Alvarez of Pomona, Calif. He had just been elected to a water district board in 2007 when he said at a public meeting that he was a retired Marine who received the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military decoration.

Again, this was for personal gain, political power. Another is a little more iffy, but still not justified, it was fraud:

The other person challenging the law is Rick Glen Strandlof, who claimed he was an ex-Marine wounded in Iraq and received the Purple Heart and Silver Star. He founded an organization in Colorado Springs that helped homeless veterans.

A veteran who is for the law says:

Army veteran Pete Lemon of Colorado Springs, who received the Medal of Honor for turning back an enemy assault and rescuing wounded comrades in Vietnam while injured himself, supports the law, saying that pretending to have a medal can bring undeserved rewards.

“It gives you the power to entice somebody into marriage,” he said. “It could give you the power to be able to join an organization, get special treatment with regards to getting tickets to a football game, getting license plates, getting preferential treatment in a job situation.”

Doug Sterner, a military historian, said the law embodies the wishes of the nation’s first commander in chief, George Washington. Sterner noted that Washington created the Purple Heart, the nation’s first military decoration, and wrote:

“Should any who are not entitled to these honors have the insolence to assume the badges of them, they shall be severely punished.”

“I think that speaks to the intent of the framers,” Sterner said, “that George Washington saw this kind of lie outside the scope of this freedom-of-speech issue.”

I am not a lawyer but even if the law is not valid in its conception, the issue of fraud is valid. Read the parts I left out here.