Posted on 08/18/2010 4:58:01 PM PDT by Past Your Eyes
Although a Southern California water board member convicted of violating the Stolen Valor Act made "deliberate and despicable" claims that he had received the Medal of Honor, the Constitution prohibits the government from prosecuting someone for merely lying, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said in a 2-1 ruling.
"The right to speak and write whatever one chooses - including, to some degree, worthless, offensive and demonstrable untruths - without cowering in fear of a powerful government is, in our view, an essential component of the protection afforded by the First Amendment," Judge Milan Smith said in the majority opinion.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Blago wishes that was the case.
And Congress had the Constitutional authority to make such a statement a crime under what specific clause of the Constitution?
9th Circus at it again, I see.
ahhh, that's what they sent Martha to jail for - and just yesterday , the ONLY thing, of all the charges on Blago - that they convicted for was lying.
This needs to be overturned - this creep should not be able to ride on the service and sacrifices of our troops
In the liberal world, lying is good, and telling the truth is bad. How hard is that to understand?
Hmmm, there seems to be numerous scriptures in the Bible about lying. Of course, this judge is the ultimate authority - he thinks! I think God would beg to disagree with his verdict.
How in the world did they get control over our lives?
Well said patriot!
LLS
You ought instead to ask yourself how did Congress get control of our lives.
The answer to that question is simply that in response to just about every perceived wrong, people, by nature, respond by saying, "There ought to be a Law!".
And then before you can say "public opinion poll" someone introduces a new piece of legislation and your Liberty is eroded just a little more every day.
Homosexual “marriage” is just as insane and irrational. Lying is “protected”??????? ARE they MUSLIMS or something?
I do not recognize this country anymore.
Our Constitution is based on Natural Law theory....this is a theory based on reason, logic, and science.
Cicero stated that LAWS that go against Natural Law are not just. Even thousands of years ago people were not nearly as dumb as these exceptionally STUPID judges.
(Or are they trying to totally TRANSFORM this country and know exactly what they are doing???)
First, the californican court is perpetually wrong in its decisions and probably has no members who did not falsify their resumes to get appointed. Second, this is probably the stupidest decision this stupid court has made. If I make up a totally false resume to get a seat on that court and have some good lobbying, and land a seat on that court for the rest of my life as a result of certain prefabrications, is that a good thing? Do they zap brains in law school so a certain number of the brain dead will be available to fill the significant quota for brain dead judicial nominees?
FWIW all of the Christian Civil Liberties groups that usually argue on behalf of the rights of Christians filed briefs in support of overturning this statute. Why would you think they would all see a danger in allowing Congress to make the mere telling of a lie in a social setting a Federal crime?
I think that “lying” in certain circumstances SHOULD be considered unlawful....as far as it is fraudulent.
It, of course, depends on the circumstances, but I think no one should have the carte blanche freedom to lie about certain things, particularly the winning of the purple heart or similar awards.
There should be some shame to lying....and I guess with the churches becoming irrelevant and islam becoming the dominant world religion....lying has to be glorified and respected especially through the law.
Now if you see some dude with a chest full of medals or bragging up his ‘war hero” status, do we have a right to ask him for his DD-214 to back it up before we assume he’s not lying?
We understand that the US Navy SEALS have a reputation for dealing with fake SEALS “out of court”, shall we say, and if there has ever been a repeat offender, Constitutional “rights” or not, we have yet to hear of them.
As far as I know, some of those braggadocios disingenuous bullfarbs never emerged from out behind the bar, nor have they been seen or heard from since - and if such were indeed the case, it would not grieve me much to speak of.
Perhaps now the military and Veteran community will start settling a few more such cases out of court as well.
When justice is routinely denied by a corrupt regime, sometimes civilization has to resort to “plan B” to prevent it’s complete dissolution into anarchy.
Surely you know what historically follows anarchy, just about every time it’s tried. That’s why Communists and Fascists establish anarchy as one of their primary tactical objectives, prerequisite to their taking a civilization over - and ultimately destroying it.
What were Billy Ayers, Cloward, Piven, and Saul Alinsky all about, hmmm?
I rest my case.
There are a lot of things that people should be shamed for doing. But Congress (the same Congress that passed this law) has made shaming people in some instances a Federal crime. In Canada (and soon here) it is a federal crime to call homosexuality a sin.
I guess with the churches becoming irrelevant ....
Why do you think that most of the Christian legal defense organizations all filed briefs in support of overturning this law?
I’m agreeing with you to an extent....just saying that lying in certain circumstances can be criminal...because in certain circumstances it is fraud.
Say you lie about qualifications for a job...and then they find out you didn’t have the proper training.....FRAUD. They should be able to prosecute you for a crime of lying on the application and be allowed to rightly fire you.
There are legal ramifications for lying in those type of circumstances....if a person is lying about military medals to get a job as a security person and a man of character....he should be able to be prosecuted for fraud if he is found out and trusted by some family.
Our system of free enterprise was established to exist—as the Founders said—upon a moral, religious people. You should NOT have to have any laws for fraud (which I consider lying to be).
My philosophy teacher told me in his Nigerian country built on moral relativism and sanctioned lying, that you couldn’t have successful business transactions. Every transaction consisted of bribes and you could never trust anyone, like they used to by a handshake in the US prior to the 1950’s.
People should have an “expectation of truth” when they are dealing with everyone. For instance, you can not successfully deal with Muslims...because they have a different moral code than Christians, that allow lying. They can cut your head off if you are not looking according to their laws.
Criminal fraud laws are not affected by this decision. This decision merely states that Congress does not have the Constitutional authority to make social lying or bragging a crime. THAT should give all of us a measure of relief!
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