Apr. 21, 2012 - More than any other person in the nation, B.G. Burkett is responsible for the Stolen Valor Act, which criminalizes lying about heroism.
An officer in the Army for just three years, one of them in Vietnam, Burkett emerged from a profitable career as a stockbroker more than 20 years ago to become a national expert on military phonies and frauds and the chief defender of Vietnam veterans' honor, a role that he says has easily cost him tens of thousands of dollars and drawn the ever-loving hatred of some people, including fellow veterans.
The term stolen valor didn't exist until Burkett wrote a book by that name in the '90s. Congress appropriated the language several years later when it made it illegal to falsely claim war-hero status, suddenly important again with the U.S. at war in Iraq and Afghanistan. But now the Supreme Court is debating whether the Stolen Valor Act violates the Constitution by stepping on people's First Amendment rights. If the court's rulings in First Amendment cases in recent years are any indication, the law may well fall.
However personally galled and angered Burkett is by phonies, he is equally frank about the possibility of losing the law that punishes them. He puts the odds of it surviving at less than 50-50. read more>>>
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