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H.R 544 and S.R.765 and NOW S.122


tarbridge
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Looks like I'll be getting out of medal collecting. Seems most medals here in the Norteast are being shipped off to Capt Fake as it has been a while since I came across one. It will be interesting to see if there is a law of unintended consequences as medals will be shipped out of country and Fakes business will dry up.

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Schofield1943

I wrote an email to GWU Law School Professor and Constitutional lawyer Jonathan Turley asking him his opinion on this matter. He has testified before Congress numerous times on a variety of issues relating to constitutionality and is highly and widely respected as an authority on the matter...

 

And he wrote me back! He believes a challenge to these bills would be a "very, very interesting case." He also believed that it would present, in his view, a "very compelling constitutional claim."

 

So - as someone who argues matters of constitutionality before the court, he believes there is legitimate merit to our case that these bills are unconstitutional. If the bill passes we really should try and put together a challenge. We would clearly have a legitimate case.

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It is not over til it's over.If it passes the House and gets signed into law...it will be challenged. We have plenty who are interested in helping on the cost.

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I'll donate as much as i can give.

 

Count me in as well....maybe if it comes to it, we can have a forum direct donate button like we do for yearly dues? Consolidating our efforts will get us further!

 

JD

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uniformcollector

Forgive me if this has already happened, but does a website exist for our cause? If not, I would be happy to put one together along with other members who might have examples of hearts thrown in the trash or have done displays to honor the brave veterans who earned them.

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Forgive me if this has already happened, but does a website exist for our cause? If not, I would be happy to put one together along with other members who might have examples of hearts thrown in the trash or have done displays to honor the brave veterans who earned them.

We have been working on one but it has never become a reality. I believe we could use help in this area.
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uniformcollector

I would be glad to do whatever I can. Let me check tonight for a few domain name options and share them on here. From there, we can work on the content.

 

Who knows, maybe some staffer might click on the website and understand the other side...

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Captainofthe7th

Contact Dave regarding the website. He has a domain and I worked a bit on getting it organized. I'm still willing to keep going on it!

 

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

 

 

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Contact Dave regarding the website. He has a domain and I worked a bit on getting it organized. I'm still willing to keep going on it!

 

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

If it has to do with his non profit...I don't think that one will transfer...
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If it becomes law it has to be challenged in court. Meaning - there probably has to an arrest and a defense. Don't think I can manage 6 months in the slammer at my age but I sure will donate $ to the defense fund! Bob

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As written the law would make PHR complicent in a criminal act as the law prohibits mailing or shipping PH medals or exchanging anything of value. I would claim PHR is gaining something of value in travel and donations.

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As written the law would make PHR complicent in a criminal act as the law prohibits mailing or shipping PH medals or exchanging anything of value. I would claim PHR is gaining something of value in travel and donations.

Yes...it has kind of been our Ace...
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Does anyone have experience setting up a "GoFundMe" account?

May want to set one up to obtain donations to the legal fund.

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Does anyone have experience setting up a "GoFundMe" account?

May want to set one up to obtain donations to the legal fund.

We have...I will try to get an update on our attempt to get some account to receive donations.
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Schofield1943

Yes.......but to whom? It will be illegal to purchase.

 

This is one of the major flaws in the bill and one of the major points to be argued against it.

 

First it makes no mention of posthumous awards or the hundreds of thousands of cases where a PH exists because of those circumstances. It is biased against the dead towards the living.

 

Secondly, even if a living serviceman is legally allowed to sell his PH, if the buyer cannot resell it down the road it arguably has no value. Meaning even if the language permits a servicemen to sell it - there is no market to buy it.

 

The government would need to have a compelling interest to make the sale illegal. Simply saying it needs to be illegal to protect the integrity of the award did not hold up in the 2005 Stolen Valor Act (see Justice Kennedy's remarks) so I'm not sure what has changed (even if that case was about freedom of speech). The fact that Purple Hearts were allowed to be sold for some 80+ years before they decided to try and outlaw them also work heavily against it. The revised Stolen Valor Act is entirely predicated on fraud - and there is no issue of fraud taking place in our examples.

 

There seems to have been extremely little thought put into this bill - it truly is "feel good legislation" that is in the end wildly unconstitutional. I believe a court challenge would go in our favor rather quickly as this sort of bill sets a terrible precedent (even if it had to go all the way to SCOTUS). One an effective constitutional lawyer would be able to argue convincingly.

 

There are at least a half dozen or more issues with this bill.

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Yes.......but to whom? It will be illegal to purchase.

Bob...posted with sacarsm...one of our points since added in SR 765...
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We are basically rehashing information we have been over many times.The bill passed the Senate and if it passes the House and gets signed into the Law of the land, we can attack it and use all the flaws against it.It does look that we will be hiring legal counsel to reverse the legislation.

I am not a lawyer but we need to push on this as soon as there is a possibility of overturning it.

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Schofield1943

Indeed - and while I don't want to re-litigate the case on here it is worth noting that some of the language used in the Senate proceeding to me actually further hurts their case.

 

Especially the claim of wanting to end 'profiteering'. That is not only pretty ambiguous but could be a very slippery slope in regards to capitalism in general.

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