Quote:
Originally Posted by craigepo
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.
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What happens when he starts wearing the uniform and medals in public?
That happened recently when a young man started telling people he was a General Officer, and wearing the uniform to public events. His lawyer said variously that he was merely exercising his First Amendment rights, he was making a joke, and that he was wearing it as an expression of satire. Like a Halloween costume.
Can I wear my police uniform and badge in my bedroom? In my house? In my yard? Anywhere on October 31st?
Where is the line, Sir?
TR
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"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
De Oppresso Liber 01/20/2025
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