United States v. Alvarez
The Court Strikes Down the Stolen Valor Act
United States v. Alvarez was featured in The Stolen Valor Act, Supreme Court Debates (Mar. 2012). The following is excerpted from the summary of the majority opinion written by Justice Kennedy, as prepared by the Court Reporter of Decisions: The Constitution “demands that content-based restrictions on speech be presumed invalid … and that the Government bear the burden of showing their constitutionality.” —Ashcroft v. American Civil Liberties Union (2002). Content-based restrictions on speech have been permitted only for a few historic categories of speech, including incitement, obscenity, defamation, speech integral to criminal conduct, so-called “fighting words,” child pornography, fraud, true…
