Quote:
Originally Posted by The Reaper
Then why is it illegal to pretend to be a law enforcement officer?
TR
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If I'm reading the laws correctly, I can go to a bar tonight and tell women I'm a cop until I'm blue in the face---that's legal. However, if I impersonate a policeman, put on a badge and pull people over with a fake car, etc., then I have a legal problem.
That is why this is going to the US Supreme Court. These folks weren't "impersonating" war heroes, in that some dude wasn't saying he was a special forces hero, then going and doing special forces stuff. The defendants were just saying that they were heroes. No action, all speech, so that's how we wind up with a 1st Amendment free speech issue that gets heard by the Supreme Court.
This is going to be an interesting issue. Generally, the 1st Amendment does not protect a lie. That is how we have so many dishonesty-based crimes on the books, as well as civil actions based upon both purposeful and negligent misrepresentation.
However, we have a 4-4-1 Supreme Court. I wouldn't bet anything on this outcome.