The law is flawed because it included making verbal claims to unearned decorations a criminal offense. You and the judge agree that this is not constitutional.
I believe that the government has an obligation to protect the integrity of its honors and decoration systems. Decorations are a gift of the sovereign state to recognize acts of heroic and meritorious nature. The government can protect the physical decorations themselves from improper and fraudulent display and should do so in order to protect those whom it has recognized. The first and most important thing that the government should do is to assemble and publish a database of legitimate awards. All of the extant databases are incomplete and were built by non-government entities, they are not official, excepting the Center for Military History’s Medal of Honor database.
Just a people can be prohibited from using the Apple logo without Apple’s permission, so too can the government proscribe improper use of its decorations. Whether the penalty can be criminal or civil, I leave to others to decide.
Perhaps, but under what Constitutional Authority? What section and what clause gives Congress the power to make the wearing or possession of a medal you did not earn a criminal offense?