AmVets: SCOTUS Ruling on Stolen Valor Fails Our Veterans’ Community

National Com­man­der Fry Vows to Con­tinue the Fight to Pro­tect Integrity of Mil­i­tary Awards

Lan­ham, Md., June 28, 2012— AMVETS National Com­man­der Gary L. Fry decried today’s U.S. Supreme Court rul­ing over­turn­ing the Stolen Valor Act of 2005 as a fail­ure to pro­tect the integrity of mil­i­tary awards and dec­o­ra­tions, and to safe­guard Amer­i­can vet­er­ans from the actual harm caused by mil­i­tary fak­ers and fraudsters.

In a land­mark 6–3 deci­sion, the Supreme Court ruled that lies about mil­i­tary awards could not be crim­i­nally pros­e­cuted, with Jus­tice Anthony Kennedy writ­ing in the court’s opin­ion, “[the act] would endorse gov­ern­ment author­ity to com­pile a list of sub­jects about which false state­ments are pun­ish­able.” How­ever, Kennedy left open the pos­si­bil­ity that new Stolen Valor leg­is­la­tion could be crafted that would pro­hibit lies about mil­i­tary awards “in less bur­den­some ways.” Cmdr. Fry seized upon this prospect Thurs­day, call­ing for a renewed effort to out­law mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tions of mil­i­tary service.

“AMVETS main­tains that Stolen Valor causes real harm to our Amer­i­can vet­er­ans, and we will con­tinue to fight to pro­tect the integrity of mil­i­tary awards and dec­o­ra­tions,” said Fry. “The shame­ful lying by Stolen Valor per­pe­tra­tors demeans the ser­vice of our true heroes, and can­not be accepted as pro­tected speech.”

Fry said that while AMVETS and other Stolen Valor advo­cates refo­cus their efforts on new leg­is­la­tion, mem­bers of the pub­lic could con­tinue to sup­port the cause. Specif­i­cally, con­cerned cit­i­zens can deter Stolen Valor by report­ing mil­i­tary fakes to the media and shar­ing those sto­ries with www.ReportStolenValor.org and other Stolen Valor watch­dog websites.

AMVETS will also con­tinue to advo­cate on Capi­tol Hill for a government-operated mil­i­tary awards data­base to help cit­i­zens quickly and accu­rately ver­ify claims of mil­i­tary ser­vice. AMVETS pre­vi­ously sup­ported H.R. 666, The Mil­i­tary Valor Roll of Honor Act, which died in com­mit­tee dur­ing the 111th Con­gress. The leg­is­la­tion would have stemmed the epi­demic of false claims of mil­i­tary valor awards by requir­ing a pub­licly acces­si­ble data­base for the top mil­i­tary awards and decorations.

Cur­rently, the most com­pre­hen­sive, pub­licly avail­able mil­i­tary awards data­base is the Mil­i­tary Times Hall of Valor, cre­ated and main­tained by his­to­rian and Stolen Valor researcher Doug Sterner and may be seen here: http://militarytimes.com/citations-medals-awards/.

About AMVETS:    
A leader since 1944 in pre­serv­ing the free­doms secured by America’s armed forces, AMVETS pro­vides sup­port for vet­er­ans and the active mil­i­tary in procur­ing their earned enti­tle­ments, as well as com­mu­nity ser­vice and leg­isla­tive reform that enhances the qual­ity of life for this nation’s cit­i­zens and vet­er­ans alike. AMVETS is one of the largest congressionally-chartered vet­er­ans’ ser­vice orga­ni­za­tions in the United States, and includes mem­bers from each branch of the mil­i­tary, includ­ing the National Guard and Reserves. To learn more, visit www.amvets.org and www.reportstolenvalor.org.