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| False claims to valor are not victimless crimes | |
| 2011-04-03 | |
| The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals got it wrong on the Stolen Valor Act. The 2005 law was a response to the seemingly countless people who fraudulently represent themselves as decorated combat veterans. A 2008 Chicago Tribune investigation found, for example, that tombstones, obituaries and even the online edition of Who's Who were rife with unsubstantiated claims of combat honors. Often the bogus heroes never served in the military at all. In a case now before the 10th Court of Appeals, a Colorado man passed himself off as a Marine Corps captain who'd won a Purple Heart and suffered post-traumatic stress from a roadside bomb during one of his three tours in Iraq. Oh yes, he'd also gone to the U.S. Naval Academy. When someone took a closer look, he turned out to have no military record at all, just a criminal one. Under the Stolen Valor Act, such an imposter can face fines and up to a year in prison. We're uncomfortable with prison sentences in cases like his. But the Ninth Circuit was wrong recently when -- in a similar case -- it held that the law violated the First Amendment. The First Amendment guarantees free speech, but it doesn't guarantee legal immunity for all forms of expression. It doesn't protect fraud, obscenity, incitement to violence and defamation, for example. Limited classes of expression can be outlawed if there is a legitimate and compelling purpose for doing so. The issue of stolen valor has a parallel in laws against impersonating a police officer. That's a crime even when the impersonator is only out to impress people. False claims to military honors are not mere white lies; they hurt people. Honest political candidates can be defeated by opponents who run on false war records. Job candidates can be edged out by rivals who falsely present themselves as combat heroes. Taxpayers get fleeced when fictional decorations are used to bolster claims for veterans' benefits. The greatest injury is done to bona fide heroes. Imposters undermine the integrity of medals of valor, cheapening decorations awarded exclusively for acts of utmost bravery. America has a compelling interest in preserving the reputation of these honors and their recipients. In voting to strike down the law, one Ninth Circuit judge cited America's historic wariness of letting the government "police the line between truth and falsity."
In the case of medals of valor, such as the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Navy Cross, the Air Force Cross and the Silver Star, there's no room for government discretion: It's an objective matter of record whether a given person has or hasn't earned one. This line is so bright that officials would have a hard time monkeying with it. Rather than prison time, we would prefer that the law provide civil sanctions, perhaps including the exposure of imposters in an online hall of shame. For people who steal the honor of heroes to impress others, public humiliation would be condign punishment. | |
| Posted by:746 |
| #13 So what the 9th circus court is saying is that if I print out a bunch of checks with Bill Gates name and address, write myself a bunch of checks, go down to the bank and cash them, its ok? Yes you have the right to free speech. You also have the (progressives - please pardon my foul language here) responsibility of that speech. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2011-04-04 00:03 |
| #12 This is a major problem, as the SCOTUS gets some 8,000 cases a year appealed to it from the Circuit Courts, of which it can only hear perhaps two or three dozen. The rest are turned down, which means the decision of the Circuit Court applies. It has become so ridiculous that the SCOTUS just takes cases that it plans to overturn, because to affirm wastes a "slot" to overturn. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-04-03 23:56 |
| #11 Will this go to the next level for review? The Ninth gets reversed an awful lot, I thought. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2011-04-03 23:34 |
| #10 I thought Grand Spamming carried the death penalty up in the 30th century. |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2011-04-03 14:27 |
| #9 Or ran a spamming operation. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2011-04-03 14:14 |
| #8 #7 Introducing myself as a justice on the 9th could be dangerous to my health!! NO WAY!! Posted by: 49 Pan you could always say you were something more respectable, Pan, like a serial pedophile |
| Posted by: Frank G 2011-04-03 12:15 |
| #7 Introducing myself as a justice on the 9th could be dangerous to my health!! NO WAY!! |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2011-04-03 11:40 |
| #6 Agreed Anonymoose, there should be stiff criminal penalties. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2011-04-03 11:17 |
| #5 I disagree that civil penalties are adequate for this offense. There are only 85 living Medal of Honor recipients, out of a population of 313 million Americans. 85 living Medal of Honor recipients *for* 313 million Americans. 85 men whose lives are defined by the Medal of Honor they carry. Men, who I like to say, that even if they are elected President of the United States, their title should be "Medal of Honor recipient, President of the United States." 85 men who represent not just their personal honor, but the honor of their family, community, State and nation. No person should ever be allowed to take that away, or diminish it, by pretending they are what they are not. Even trying to do so means that they need at least a year in a federal penitentiary to contemplate what they have done. And justifiably, a year in solitary confinement. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-04-03 11:12 |
| #4 On July 16, 2010, a federal judge in Denver ruled the Stolen Valor Act is "facially unconstitutional" because it violates free speech and dismissed the criminal case against Strandlof who lied about being an Iraq war veteran.[19] Strandlof, 32, was charged with five misdemeanors related to violating the Act — specifically, making false claims about receiving military decorations. Well, I should be able to represent myself as a police officer, Federal judge, school teacher, lawyer, engineer, or physician with impunity because I am merely exercising my free speech. I think the court's ruling is based on flawed reasoning. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2011-04-03 11:02 |
| #3 The same society now labels the unborn "non-humans." No surprises here. It is what Rome has become in these latter years. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2011-04-03 11:01 |
| #2 Remember at the next soiree to introduce yourself as a justice of the Ninth US Circuit. As long as it doesn't harm anyone, it's OK. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2011-04-03 10:45 |
| #1 According to the 9th circus, Soldiers are outcasts and dont really count anyway. |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2011-04-03 10:36 |