The U.S. Supreme Court's decision Thursday striking down the Stolen Valor Act says the 1st Amendment "protects the speech we detest as well as the speech we embrace," according to Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.
By a 6-3 decision, the high court said the right to lie about medals and military service, while "contemptible" and worthy of outrage and ridicule, is protected by the 1st Amendment.
It is now OK to lie about your service and wear medals you weren't awarded. Then again, if Repugs couldn't lie, they'd have nothing to say.
My personal opinion is that lying should not be "protected speech". Remember that it is against the law for us to lie to government but the government can lie to us all they want.
Then again, look who voted how:
Voting in favor of striking down the law were the Chief Justice John Roberts and associate justices Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Dissenting were Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito.
I hate to say the wingnuts voted my way on this one. Even though my heart tells me the Court was wrong to overturn this act, my head tells me they did the right thing. I'm totally conflicted on this one. Dammit.
7 comments:
I don't have a problem with some idiot dressing up and playing army. The fact they're an idiot and liar should be obvious to those who've really been there soon enough. I got a problem with those who make up a good story and try to pass themselves off as something they're not in order to make money or gain power from it.
And yes, they did the right thing.
I know they did. Sometimes I hate it when people do the right thing even though I know it was the right thing.
If you're in a bar lying about your service and a real vet catches you, you're gonna get your ass kicked and that's the end of it. If you gain office by lying about your service and get caught, you're still in office and nothing happens and you can thumb your nose at everyone who voted for you. The pols all do that anyway, but it ain't right.
As much as I would like to see liars and posers keelhauled, I gotta agree with the majority.
Wearing medals and telling falsehoods about one's service to their country is a violation of honor and personal ethics. If I find out a person lied about medals or his/her service, I realize that person has no honor and treat them as such.
Most of the ribbons I got were because I was in the right place and the right time. Nothing special, nothing glorious, just doing the job (sitting in a chair, twisting a screwdriver, listening to hours and hours of static on comms, eating real bad food, and reading the same comics over and over again, etc) If this were a lie, I need to work on it a little more.
P.S. an afterthought... Lying to me doesn't include sea stories. Telling tall tales about life on the sea is a time honored tradition for sailors. Saying that I met King Neptune is one thing but telling people I have a Bronze Star is beyond the pale.
Sea stories and bench racing and generally talkin' loud and tellin' lies are the stuff of life!
Bench racing = the older I get, the faster I was. :-)
Yeah, I always felt my Bronze Star was my Vietnam Officer's Good Conduct Medal, but I also feel I earned my two Army Commendation Medals.
Bronze Star from my 9 months in 25thInf Div G-3. ACMs from 2/320th FA, 101st Airborne at Ft. Campbell pre-VN, and teaching Arty Commo at Ft. Sill post-VN.
I earned those two.
That is simply the only way that posers like Cheney, Bush, and all their friends could ever wear a US combat medal.
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