What is stolen valor?

Answer 1

Stolen Valor is when someone who was never in the military publicly dresses up in a military outfit and tries to go around accepting praise and discounts designed for veterans. This is illegal in the U.S.

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To give more detail - only PROFITING from stolen valor is currently illegal in the US.

U.S. Public Law 113-12 amended Section 704 of title 18, United States Code to read:

"Fraudulent Representations About Receipt of Military Decorations or Medals.

--Whoever, with intent to obtain money, property, or other tangible benefit, fraudulently holds oneself out to be a recipient of a decoration or medal described in subsection (c)(2) or (d) shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than one year, or both."

At the beginning of the law, it also states that:

This Act may be cited as the "Stolen Valor Act of 2013"

This is a revision of the previous "Stolen Valor Act of 2005" that was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court as a violation of "Freedom of Speech" in response to a case brought against Xavier Alvarez who falsely claimed to have received the "Congressional Medal of Honor" - the nation's highest military honor, which is awarded only in cases of such incredible personal acts of valor above and beyond the Call of Duty that since 1941, more than half of the Medals of Honor have been awarded posthumously, i.e. they died performing the actions for which the medal was awarded - knowing that they WOULD die or were putting their life at extreme risk in order to perform the act. The court held that telling a bald-faced lie, even one that egregious, was protected by the 1st Amendment. Following the Supreme Court decision, the U.S. Department of Defense announced they would unveil a new website, valor.defense.gov, which would provide a public record of medal recipients.

(Incidentally, even though he won the appeal of his conviction under the 2005 law, Alvarez was still convicted of misappropriation of public funds, grand theft, and insurance fraud in 2009 and sentenced to five years in state prison.)