High Court: Free Speech Trumps Insulted War Heroes

The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.

The Constitution's guarantee of free speech for all Americans outweighs a law created to punish liars who insult the nation's most-decorated war veterans, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

In striking down the Stolen Valor Act of 2005, the high court determined the law was too strict and lacked a legal cut-off valve. Justices warned that had the Valor Act been upheld, the government legally could have brought charges against individuals who merely told white lies over beers with a buddy about getting a military award.

"Fundamental constitutional principles require that laws enacted to honor the brave must be consistent with the precepts of the Constitution for which they fought," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion.

"The government's argument simply lacked a limiting principle. Perfectly respectable people sometimes lie to protect their privacy, avoid hurt feelings, make others feel better, duck minor obligations, or protect themselves and others from prejudice," says Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director at the ACLU. "If the court had endorsed the government's sweeping argument, the government could regulate all of these false statements--and even criminalize them."

[Photos: At the Supreme Court.]

Xavier Alvarez in July 2007 told those assembled for a local California water district meeting that he was a "retired Marine of 25 years" who in 1987 "was awarded the Congressional Medal of honor" after he "got wounded many times."

It soon surfaced that none of that is true. Federal investigators soon came looking for Alvarez, and charged him with violating the Stolen Valor Act, created by Congress to penalize individuals who falsely claim to have earned a military citation.

The six Supreme Court justices who ruled to overturn the law made clear in written opinions released Thursday their collective feelings about Alvarez. (Three justices voted to uphold the 2005 law.)

"Lying was his habit. Xavier Alvarez...lied when he said that he played hockey for the Detroit Red Wings and that he once married a starlet from Mexico," Kennedy wrote. "But when he lied in announcing he held the Congressional Medal of Honor, respondent ventured onto new ground."

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High Court: Free Speech Trumps Insulted War Heroes