USA v. Xavier Alvarez - Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

UNITED STATES v. ALVAREZ
one’s height, weight, age, or financial status on Match.com or
Facebook, or falsely representing to one’s mother that one
does not smoke, drink alcoholic beverages, is a virgin, or has
not exceeded the speed limit while driving on the freeway.
The sad fact is, most people lie about some aspects of their
lives from time to time. Perhaps, in context, many of these
lies are within the government’s legitimate reach. But the
government cannot decide that some lies may not be told
without a reviewing court’s undertaking a thoughtful analysis
of the constitutional concerns raised by such government
interference with speech.
Finding no appropriate way to avoid the First Amendment
question Alvarez poses, we hold that the speech proscribed by
the Act is not sufficiently confined to fit among the narrow
categories of false speech previously held to be beyond the
First Amendment’s protective sweep. We then apply strict
scrutiny review to the Act, and hold it unconstitutional
because it is not narrowly tailored to achieving a compelling
governmental interest.
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
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Xavier Alvarez won a seat on the Three Valley Water District
Board of Directors in 2007. On July 23, 2007, at a joint
meeting with a neighboring water district board, newly-seated
Director Alvarez arose and introduced himself, stating “I’m a
retired marine of 25 years. I retired in the year 2001. Back in
1987, I was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. I got
wounded many times by the same guy. I’m still around.”
Alvarez has never been awarded the Congressional Medal
of Honor, nor has he spent a single day as a marine or in the
service of any other branch of the United States armed forces.
In short, with the exception of “I’m still around,” his selfintroduction
was nothing but a series of bizarre lies.
Alvarez’s misrepresentations during the 2007 water district
board meeting were only the latest in a long string of fabrica-