By a plurality the court ruled the Stolen UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
I am currently going through the decision and the dissent(s) and will post relevant portions from them as the day progresses.
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The Stolen Valor Act was ruled unconstitutional by a plurality decision of the Supreme Court today. As I go through the ruling I will have more information that I will post here.
OK, so the way it broke down I felt was somewhat surprising. Thomas, Scalia and Alito were with us, as expected. But Roberts shifted over, which I had not expected. And so, our hope of a 5-4 win turned into a 6-3 loss when Kennedy joined Roberts on the other side as well. But, all is not lost, there is significant hope to be found even within a ruling that went against us.
Before I leap into parts of it, I wanted to show you what the Scotusblog had to say about the case. ScotusBlog is written by lawyers and constitutional scholars, and lays it out better than I can:
More @ This Ain't Hell
As TSO points out here there IS a bill pending that may actually be a better option for dealing with Stolen Valor anyway.
The Summary:
Stolen Valor Act of 2011 – Amends the federal criminal code to subject an individual who, with intent to obtain anything of value, knowingly makes a misrepresentiation regarding his or her military service to: (1) a fine, one year’s imprisonment, or both if the misrepresentation is that such individual served in a combat zone or in a special operations force or was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor; and (2) a fine, six months’ imprisonment, or both, in any other case. Provides that: (1) this Act shall not apply to a misrepresentation that an individual did not serve in the Armed Forces, and (2) it is a defense to prosecution that the thing of value is de minimis.
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