>>> while the supreme cortal rucortal -- court's rule was making headlines, an emotional issue. pitting military honor against freedom of speech . ? the justices struck down a federal law making it a crime to lie about receiving the medal of honor and other military awards saying the so-called stolen valor act violated free speech rights. now, the case involved xavier alvarez , a former local elected official in california. he publicly claimed he was a 25-year marine vet and was awarded the medal of honor . the nation's highest military award for heroic actions during the vietnam war . it was later reveal head never serves in the military at all. joining me, retired army colonel jack jacobs who were receive the medal's honor for heroism during the vietnam war . great to have you here. this is a story someone like you, my dad, a vietnam vet , following this closely to see how it would come down. when he look at the way the justices wrote their opinions, 6-3 ruling. the majority opinion , few mind find respondent statements anything but contemptible, his right to make the statements is protected by the constitution's guarantee of freedom of speech and expression . you share that sentiment, basically that this is totally off the wall to do something like this, but you can't go against their freedom of speech ?
>> more than off the wall. i'm only speaking for myself, but there are tens of millions of veteran whose also followed this very closely and find alvarez to be a contemptible, despicable revolting creature who isn't even worth the effort it would take to walk across the street and push him on his backside, to ? be honest with you, and there are plenty of he'll who would like to do that right now. the fact of the matter, he has a right to be a fool and within certain parameters to say whatever he wants to say. this is a first amendment court. time and time again, this court, even as conservative as it appears to be in many respects, has time and time again come down in favor of free speech , and nobody should be surprised that it did so this time, too.
>> jack, proponents of the 2006 law including the 2.4 million american legion and the vet, a book " stolen valor " inspired this law. he said, the medal of honor , the vat majority of the people awarded in a were killed in action in thes of of their country and we can't protect that declaration from disrespect. he has a valid understandable position of how he feels about this, and given the fact that it was posthumously given to most of our american heroes.
>> most of the recipients were posthumously awarded and-of-but lots of soldiers and sailors killed in action. nobody saw what they did. people saw it, when they themselves were killed and were not recognized for valor. not because they didn't do it, but because people didn't see it. there are lots of people, including me, upset by all this. a simple fix and the congress should have seen it coming. when you try to butt up against the first amendment you run into big problems. in order to turn the stolen valor act into a ? federal fraud act, it's very simple to do. if somebody does something to achieve a gain of some find kind, as alvarez did, that's puni punishable. lie on your income taxes. talk to a cop investigating and lie, you'll find yourselves behind bars quickly. we have to get the statute right, and we'll be able to prosecute properly.
>> when you talk about that, because it is a federal crime to wear the unearned medals, but the claims alvarez did, that isn't. when we talk about the gain of something, of wearing those medals and what that gains you, the respect of people or the thought --
>> ah, gaining respect is one thing. material gain is something else again. alvarez made these comments, got elected to a water board in california. for which i assume he was compensated in some way. any time you do something personal, not just self-grandizing as alvarez did certainly, also to get material gain as alvarez did you ought to be able to be prosecuted. i believe congress will act quickly to amend the law.
Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/newsnation/48017386/
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