Following up more than a week late on this after having given it so much attention last month: Per the Arizona Republic, Governor Katie Hobbs signed the Grand Canyon State’s Stolen Valor Act into law on Friday, April 18th, weeks after white nationalist psychopath state Senator Wendy Rogers had blocked it seemingly to protect an ally she had endorsed last year in a contentious state House GOP primary against the bill’s eventual sponsor, now-state Representative Walter Blackman.
The significance of the new law is that now candidates for any public office cannot misrepresent anything about their military service (or lack thereof), which is really the first time in United States history that ANY sort of lying to voters about personal qualifications or achievements by candidates is a criminal offense. Hopefully this is the top of a slippery slope in which even empty promises – like ending the war in Ukraine in the first 24 hours – are and will remain protected speech while blatant and knowing misstatements like they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the dogs, etc is a crime.