Stolen Valor
Can you lie about military service? Is it criminal to claim you're a vet?
June 28, 2012 - 6:16 am
It’s not only Obamacare today, it’s also “Stolen Valor,” the law that makes it a crime to falsely claim you’re a military guy/hero. Does the 1st Amendment protect this lie? We military families hope not…
While I find lying about military service, especially falsely claiming to have earned medals that so many have fought and died to earn, morally repugnant, I have serious issues with the law. How can it be squared with the first amendment? Even if it could pass 1st amendment muster, do we really want to start criminalizing lying?
I think the Stolen Valor act is bad law. Good intentions, but bad law.
Across the Veteran world, the rule of thumb is, the more someone brags about their service, the less likely they are to be telling you the truth. Or, as someone once observed to me (when I was running the front desk of a Veteran’s Homeless shelter), “funny just how many SEALS, Green Berets, and Marine Recon. we get through those doors, isn’t it?”
They’re really not that hard to spot. I personally must say, if lying about their service (or even about having served at all) is a fair trade-off for the contempt you will earn when caught – and you will be caught – more power to you.
’nuff said.
If they feel the need to say they did . . .they didn’t. If they did, they know what they did so there’s not need to say it.
That being said, the 1st amendment trumps all, IMHO. If we start outlawing liars, there won’t be anyone to run the country.
I stand with the First Amendment. Let these frauds and poseurs be unveiled in the free market of ideas, and ridiculed with the same free speech they used to insult the nation.