 A particularly fractious United States Supreme Court case was 2012 's United States v. Alvarez , involving judicial review in which the Court struck down the Stolen Valor Act , a federal law that criminalized false statements about having a military medal . The law had been passed as an effort to stem instances where people falsely claimed to have won the medal in an attempt to protect the " valor " of those who really had . While a 6 @-@ 3 majority of the Supreme Court agreed that the law was unconstitutional under the First Amendment 's free speech protections , it could not agree on a single rationale . Sotomayor was among four justices , along with Justices Roberts , Ginsburg and Kennedy , who concluded that a statement 's falsity is not enough , by itself , to exclude speech from First Amendment protection . Justices Breyer and Kagan concluded that while false statements were entitled to some protection , the Stolen Valor Act was invalid because it could have achieved its objectives in less restrictive ways . Justices Scalia , Thomas and Alito were in dissent . 
