Xavier Alvarez, pictured, was indicted in 2007 after he falsely claimed that he was a retired Marine who received the Medal of Honor.
Big fish story or fraud?
That’s a nutshell synopsis of a decision the Supreme Court is expected to hand down this week—arguably, one of the year’s most important cases that few people have ever heard of.
At issue are the claims of California huckster Xavier Alvarez, who was elected to a local water board and lied to fellow board members about having received the Medal of Honor. That landed Alvarez afoul of the federal Stolen Valor Act, which penalizes those falsely claiming military combat medals with up to a year in prison–or did, until the famously liberal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in California overturned the law and Alvarez’s conviction in 2010.
But Colorado military historian Doug Sterner maintains that the statute guards against more than resume-boosting lies.
“It is a pattern of unlawful activity, a pattern of deception, a pattern of taking advantage of people,” he told Human Events this week.
“Stolen valor isn’t lying; it’s impersonation. It is stealing the identity of a wounded warrior or a legitimate veteran or an American hero.”
Sterner entered the business of exposing military phonies unwittingly, when he began an exhaustive project to catalogue online all recipients of the Navy Cross and the Medal of Honor, the military’s two highest awards. (To this day, no complete database for less prestigious medals, such as the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star, exists.)
As he collected records and citations, he frequently came across reports that proved too good to be true: individuals who constructed fables of military service and high honors in hopes of securing respect, trust, and perhaps glory from their communities.
In 2005, Doug Sterner’s wife, Pam, helped draft the Stolen Valor Act, which became law in 2006.
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