Congressional Medal of Honor Society/CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL OF HONOR SOCIETY - From left, Medals of Honor for the Army, Air Force and Navy.Supreme Court To Hear Arguments On Whether A Lie Is Protected Speech -- McClatchy News
WASHINGTON — Fake hero Xavier Alvarez lied to his fellow Californians.
He never rescued an American ambassador. He was never a Marine. Most definitely, contrary to what he told a Southern California audience, Alvarez was never awarded the Medal of Honor.
He lied, until he was caught. Now, the Supreme Court must decide whether the First Amendment protects Alvarez and other wannabes from prosecution. The consequences could stretch well beyond what lawmakers and veterans call stolen valor.
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My Comment: Not surprisingly, many in the media are coming out in support of fraudsters like Xavier Alvarez. What is my take .... insecure people with no confidence in themselves are a fact of life, but this not a "get out of jail" free card. The law is the law, and Congress with the support of the American people have been consistent in the support of laws like the 'Stolen Valor Act' .... from the founding fathers of the Republic .... George Washington on down.
2 comments:
Lies to get money (consumer fraud, etc.) are generally punishable. Are lies to get votes substantially less harmful and, therefore, less deserving of punishment? Isn't this exactly what Alvarez did? Lying on resumes, regardless of your status, just does not cut it! The cout had their head up their an*s ( now thats FREE SPEECH or is the court above it's own dictum) ?
So Congress cannot make any law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press. Simple enough, right? The only trouble is that the First Amendment does not actually mean what is says. The First Amendment talks in broad, sweeping terms, but there are a plethora of instances where there are laws that affect the freedom of speech, and the freedom of the press. For example, defamation law has always been considered to be consistent with the First Amendment despite the fact that individuals that engage in libel or slander are held to account for the false or misleading things that they say. Even those who publish things that are found to be defamatory are held to account, so obviously that is one instance where laws are allowed to abridge the freedom to lie and/or misrepresent, as well as the right to publish lies and/or misrepresentations.
There are other examples as well. The Federal Trade Commission describes its mission as preventing “business practices that are anticompetitive or deceptive or unfair to consumers; to enhance informed consumer choice and public understanding of the competitive process…” This mission is achieved, at least in part, by going after those who commit fraud or engage in misrepresentations.
The Securities and Exchange Commission similarly goes after publicly traded companies for making false or misleading statements.
Further google these:
37 CFR 240.14A-9
15 U.S.C. 1125(a)(1)(B)
So to anyone paying attention to the law in general it would be obvious that there are a whole host of areas where laws prohibit false and misleading statements and none of these statutes or rules has ever been declared unconstitutional as violating the First Amendment, despite these laws frequently being at issue in cases before the Supreme Court.
those who want to believe that the First Amendment protects any and all false or misrepresenting speech ARE wrong.
The law prohibits false and misleading speech consistent with the First Amendment when damage is done and people are injured as the result of false or misleading speech.
any one who opposed the SVA and claims they served, I personally would like to see your 214. The most adament against it are the wannabe, liars and theifs.
Every one of these liberal legal authors who takes Medals like the CMOH lightly needs to see the SF MSGT Roy Benavidez Story. We have the President's Speech & then Roy's speech live here: http://we-patriots.com scroll down to various video's - his is the first in the line up. Also have a Korean War PoW's story live ( he could have went home via a Chinese offer.. - but chose to stay with his brothers in arms as PoW)
Some people will never understand HONOR & VALOR ... sadly many who will not work inside the legal profession. They will never understand the price of their freedom ( till it has vanished ) nor why the later PoW did what he did.
Colonel Theodore Wilson Guy, United States Air Force, (Ret) Ted Guy, nicknamed "The Hawk" by those who knew him best, Former PoW NVN once said:
Ted once said "honor is something that once you lose it you become like an insect in the jungle. You prey upon others and others prey upon you until there is nothing left. Once you lose your honor, all the gold in the world is useless in your attempt to regain it."
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