Aug 10, 2021 · Xavier Alvarez, an elected official of a water district in Claremont, California, two years after enacting the Stolen Valor Act of 2005, misrepresented himself to the public as a Marine-Medal of Honor recipient for his service in the Vietnam war.
Xavier Alvarez Exoneration Database record. ... In 2010 the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Alvarez's conviction and the U.S. Attorney's Office appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. On June 28, 2012 the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the Ninth Circuit's ruling by a 6-3 vote in holding the Stolen Valor Act's prohibition against making false ...
Jun 28, 2012 · ALVAREZ certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the ninth circuit No. 11–210. Argued February 22, 2012—Decided June 28, 2012 The Stolen Valor Act makes it a crime to falsely claim receipt of military decorations or medals and provides an enhanced penalty if the Congressional Medal of Honor is involved. 18 U. S. C. §§704 (b), (c).
California man who lied about Congressional Medal prosecuted under Stolen Valor Act Xavier Alvarez, a board member of the Three Valley Water District Board in Claremont, California, falsely claimed that he won the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1987. For this false statement, he faced prosecution under the Stolen Valor Act.
In 2007, Xavier Alvarez. (link is external) , an elected member of a water district board in California, identified himself at a public meeting as a retired U.S. Marine who had been wounded in combat many times and had received the Congressional Medal of Honor. "I'm a retired Marine of 25 years.
Alvarez appealed the First Amendment issue, claiming that the Stolen Valor law violated the First Amendment and, therefore, his conviction was unlawful. A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit agreed with Alvarez and reversed his conviction, declaring the Stolen Valor Act unconstitutional in a vote of 2-to-1.
After FBI agents obtained a tape recording of the meeting, federal prosecutors charged Alvarez with two counts of violating the Stolen Valor Act. Alvarez 's lawyer argued that the Stolen Valor Act was invalid under the First Amendment and, therefore, the case should be dismissed. The trial court rejected this argument. Alvarez was tried and convicted in the United States District Court for the Central District of California. He was sentenced to probation for three years and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine. He was the first person convicted under the Stolen Valor Act.
Alvarez was tried and convicted in the United States District Court for the Central District of California. He was sentenced to probation for three years and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine. He was the first person convicted under the Stolen Valor Act.
After the Court agreed to hear the case, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, ruling in a different case, declared the Stolen Valor Act constitutional in a vote of 2-to-1.
None of Alvarez's claims was true. He never served in the Marine Corps or any branch of the military, was never wounded in combat, and has never received a medal of any kind, including the nation's highest military award – the Medal of Honor.
Respondent was indicted under the Stolen Valor Act for lying about the Congressional Medal of Honor at the meeting . The United States District Court for the Central District of California rejected his claim that the statute is invalid under the First Amendment.
The Court strikes down the Stolen Valor Act of 2005, which was enacted to stem an epidemic of false claims about military decorations. These lies, Congress reasonably concluded, were undermining our country’s system of military honors and inflicting real harm on actual medal recipients and their families.
The Stolen Valor Act follows a long tradition of efforts to protect our country’s system of military honors. When George Washington, as the commander of the Continental Army, created the very first “honorary badges of distinction” for service in our country’s military, he established a rigorous system to ensure that these awards would be received and worn by only the truly deserving. See General Orders of George Washington Issued at Newburgh on the Hudson, 1782–1783, p. 35 (E. Boynton ed. 1883) (reprint 1973) (requiring the submission of “incontest- ible proof” of “singularly meritorious action” to the Commander in Chief). Washington warned that anyone with the “insolence to assume” a badge that had not actually been earned would be “severely punished.” Id., at 34.
Even where there is a wide scholarly consensus concerning a particular matter, the truth is served by allowing that consensus to be challenged without fear of reprisal. Today’s accepted wisdom sometimes turns out to be mistaken. And in these contexts, “ [e]ven a false statement may be deemed to make a valuable contribution to public debate, since it brings about ‘the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.’ ” Sullivan, supra, at 279, n. 19 (quoting J. Mill, On Liberty 15 (R. McCallum ed. 1947)).
Statutes forbidding impersonation of a public official typically focus on acts of impersonation, not mere speech, and may require a showing that, for example, someone was deceived into following a “course [of action] he would not have pursued but for the deceitful conduct.”. United States v.
The probable, and adverse, effect of the Act on free- dom of expression illustrates, in a fundamental way, the reasons for the Law’s distrust of content-based speech prohibitions.
S. C. §§704 (b), (c). Respondent pleaded guilty to a charge of falsely claiming that he had received the Medal of Honor, but reserved his right to appeal his claim that the Act is unconstitutional. The Ninth Circuit reversed, finding the Act invalid under the First Amendment.
However, Kennedy reasoned that the law was not narrowly tailored enough to address the alleged harms associated with false claims of winning military honors.
__ (2012), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Stolen Valor Act, a federal law that prohibited lying about receiving military medals, violated the First Amendment.
California man who lied about Congressional Medal prosecuted under Stolen Valor Act. Xavier Alvarez, a board member of the Three Valley Water District Board in Claremont, California, falsely claimed that he won the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1987.
Breyer quoted John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty for the proposition that false statements contribute to public debate because of the “the clear perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.”.