Faking of military medals no longer illegal in CA..
 

Are the courts intentionally trying to divide the country?

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/08/17...onstitutional/

If it goes to the Supreme Court the law will be upheld I hope.

What signal, it?
 

It does not sound good, are certainly one or two who have a different view :hmmm:

That's stupid. :yep:

A link that is not fox news:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...1EVG92.DTL&aaa

Regardless of news source, I think there should be some penalty if one decides to lie about having recieved the highest decoration this country has to offer.

Wait, what?
Unconstitutional how?

Freedom of speech.

As much contempt as I have for anyone who'd lie about such a thing, I can see where being subject to prosecution for just saying it would violate the First Amendment.

I'm assuming that any attempt to capitalize on the lie that results in fraudulent activity to the detriment of others would still be a punishable offense.

Hmm, as much as I don't like it have to concede the point to you, Frau.

Except, as noted in the Fox News article, the U.S. Supreme court has already said the 1st Amendment does not give you a right to lie.

I was referring to the report at Ducimus' link, which gives "freedom of speech" as the reason for the ruling:

From the Fox News article:

Just remember that if you make it illegal for anyone to wear military medals/ribbons they have not earned, it has to apply to TV, Movie, Stage, and Re-enactments too. Do we really want to stop re-enactors from wearing medals?

Oh stop it. No it doesn't. Actors in cop shows are not arrested for impersonating police officers, are they?

Oh for cryin out loud you have got to be kidding me.... :stare:

Of course it is silly. That was my point. :yep:

This is why laws preventing citizens from dressing up are not only stupid but unconstitutional.

Now if a person dressing up tries to exercise any authority, or tries to gain money or profit from the impersonation, that is illegal. Which is why we have laws that prevent people from impersonating a official and taking an action based on the presumed authority of the costume. That is a smart and constitutional law.

If I want to dress up as a police officer, I can. But if I try to exercise the authority of a police officer, that's illegal. Not the dressing up, but the attempt to exercise authority that is unauthorized.

The same goes for dressing up as a military member. Actors do it, re-enactors do it, and citizens do it. Nothing illegal about it, until they try to exercise any authority without authorization.

Now do you understand why dress up laws are not good, but attempting unauthorized authority laws are good?