TexasCHLforum.com

JP171 wrote:there was a new law passed last year and signed, it narrowed the old law

Thanks. Good to know. Looks like (Google) it was an amendment to the 2013 Defense Authorization Act signed into law on January 2, 2013. That said, this guy was convicted in 2012. So now I wonder anew, under what law in effect in 2012 was he convicted? I know I'm picking nits, but I'm curious to know.

JP171 wrote:he was prosucuted under the Stolen Valor act a federal law that makes falsifying your military record to include things you didn't do or awards you didn't earn a federal crime

I thought that the Stolen Valor Act was ruled unconstitutional, so I looked it up on Wikipedia

"On October 17, 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider the validity of the law. On June 28, 2012, the Supreme Court found the law unconstitutional in a 6 to 3 decision, with Justices Scalia, Thomas and Alito dissenting. In United States v. Alvarez the majority held that the Stolen Valor Act was an unconstitutional abridgment of the freedom of speech under the First Amendment."

I strongly disagree with the ruling.

I wonder why he was federally prosecuted. On the application form it says, "STATEMENT - State law makes falsifying information on this application a third-degree felony" Either way, he got caught and punished.