(Stolen Valor Act) High Court Dilemma: Can Lie About Medal Be Crime?

Associated Press ^ | Sunday, February 19 | Associated Press

[Mach9]

I tend to agree even though I still believe lying about military service (never mind medal-claiming!) is bottom-of-the-barrell. Yet I can’t help but wonder about the hierarchy of lies involved here. Is it a crime to lie to the Veterans Administration about your service or your ailments as a result of that service? Thousands, maybe even tens of thousands, of nonveterans have and are receiving medical help from VA hospitals. Even actual veterans are receiving VA help for phony ailments. Does this, too, affect Freedom of Speech, or is it just plain fraud?

[yldstrk]

Sorry. As an attorney I can tell you, free speech includes the right to lie. Cops do it all the time when they are questioning suspects.

[yldstrk]

Peopole walk into police stations every day and claim crimes they never committed. Is that a crime? sheesh If we go down this path soon we will have statutes with definition of “true” in them and we will be up a creek without a paddle

[Ax]

Sure you remember him. We called him “Agent Orange,” don’t you remember?

[Grizzled Bear]

Peopole walk into police stations every day and claim crimes they never committed. Is that a crime?

Actually, I believe it is a crime to make a false report, whether you are accusing yourself or someone else.

[NonValueAdded]

Concerns that the law improperly limits speech and turns people into criminals for things they say, rather than do, are at the heart of the Supreme Court's review of his case and the Stolen Valor Act.

These Stolen Valor utterances are statements of objective fact, not opinion, and if they can be proven to be lies then where in the First Amendment does it say "no consequences?"

[gandalftb]

Jesse (The Body) (The Governor) Ventura:

“You’re talking to an ex-Navy Seal here.” Playboy, November, 1999.

“I was in the SEALs during the Vietnam War, so I experienced firsthand how we, as Americans, were affected by that conflict.” Rolling Stone, December 30, 1999

“We’re a proud organization. If anyone tries to pretend they’re a SEAL, God help them.” Jesse Ventura Autobiography: I Ain’t Got Time to Bleed

OK Jesse, how about some reality:

Ventura graduated with BUD/S class 58 in December 1970 and was part of Underwater Demolition Team 12 (UDT). The UDTs were merged with the US Navy SEALs in 1983, 8 years after Ventura had left the Navy.”

Ventura never had a 5326 NEC (Seals), he was 5321 UDT and had no claim to being a SEAL and certainly none to SEAL Team One. He also did no combat UDT.

They made him a governor. Ventura used his freedom of speech to lie, embellish, promote himself and make a fortune doing so.

What would it matter if he claimed decorations or devices that he didn’t earn? Fraud is fraud right?

Freedom of speech also means freedom to lie or deceive. The government should step in only when someone is harmed by another’s lies.

Of course it’s insulting to vets with authentic decorations and devices.

Have we gone too far by criminalizing insults?

My Dad has a Purple Heart with a star (twice wounded) at Saipan. But it is not listed as an authorized decoration or device in his SRB. I have seen his wounds, that were documented by Navy Physicians on Saipan and the VA Hospitals he was treated for the rest of his life.

Stolen Valor?