{"id":28834,"date":"2012-02-22T09:24:08","date_gmt":"2012-02-22T13:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=28834"},"modified":"2012-02-22T09:33:17","modified_gmt":"2012-02-22T13:33:17","slug":"american-legion-on-stolen-valor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=28834","title":{"rendered":"American Legion on Stolen Valor"},"content":{"rendered":"

As you probably know, TSO and VTWoody are at the Supreme Court today listening to arguments before the Court in regards to Stolen Valor. The USAToday<\/a> printed the American Legion’s stance on the issue. TSO tells me that he wrote it;<\/p>\n

Despite hyperbolic claims from opponents of the Stolen Valor Act, this legislation does not represent a slippery slope toward outlawing mere boasts in a tavern. This act recognizes congressional authority under the Constitution to safeguard and protect the reputation and meaning of military decorations and medals.<\/p>\n

As the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals recently noted in a different Stolen Valor Act challenge, “The Supreme Court has observed time and again, false statements of fact do not enjoy constitutional protection, except to the extent necessary to protect more valuable speech. Under this principle, the Stolen Valor Act does not impinge on or chill protected speech, and therefore does not offend the First Amendment.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Like I pointed out in my interview that wasn’t broadcast this morning, people have used their Stolen Valor to give them some sort of moral authority in a particular discussion. Ballduster McSoulpatch<\/a> claimed that he was a highly decorated general\/lieutenant colonel who despite his many awards was ejected from the Army because of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. The truth was that he had been discharged years before the policy was enacted and he was an undecorated PFC when he was discharged.<\/p>\n

Rick Duncan\/Strandlof<\/a>, who had never spent a day in uniform, pushed the DADT meme, too, as a gay Marine captain. He also starred in VoteVets commercials for political candidates as a wounded Iraq veteran to entice people to vote as a wounded Iraq veteran would want them to vote.<\/p>\n

Xavier Alvarez, whose case is being discussed today, used his Stolen Valor to advance his political career without spending a day in a real uniform. Gunny Lauve<\/a>, who had spent a few months in the Navy at the end of World War II had lived off of the kindness of his neigbors for decades. Phony SEAL Jason Truitt<\/a> stole a hunting trip from some real wounded veteran and took his free rifle.<\/p>\n

All of these instances are egregious breaches of faith, but without Stolen Valor, none of those instances of fraud are illegal. The producer of the radio show asked me if I didn’t think that the penalties (up to year in prison) were too stiff. I answered that ‘no’ I didn’t think so. If laws are a deterrent to criminal behavior, it’d be easy to avoid a year in prison – all a person has to do is not make false claims about their military service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As you probably know, TSO and VTWoody are at the Supreme Court today listening to arguments … American Legion on Stolen Valor<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-phony-soldiers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28834\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}