Stolen Valor Act Overruled

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overruled the Stolen Valor Act today. The Stolen Valor Act was passed by congress to make it illegal to falsely claim to have received military medals.
In 2007 Xavier Alvarez (a California public official) was found guilty of falsely claiming to have received the Medal of Honor after being wounded many times in combat. Unfortunately for him he made this statement at a public meeting and was then charged. Alvarez then appealed the case stating that it is his first amendment right to free speech to lie about whatever he wants. It is currently unclear if this case will go to the Supreme Court and even if it does no one is sure how they will rule. In the past Supreme Court has ruled on both sides of this issue.
The First Amendment was designed to protect political speech but over time has protected everything from art to pornography. At the same time there are things you cannot do such as yelling fire in a theater. In recent times congress has even passed laws restricting what kind of advertising can be done close to an election (political speech) and even more recently made it a crime to lie to a federal agent (like the FBI). So I guess sometimes you can lie and sometimes you cant.
I admit there is a part of me that wishes there were tougher laws on lying about awards. I train in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and have seen people lie about their credentials, what belt they are, what Jiu-Jitsu tournaments they have won or what their Mixed Martial Arts record is. However the thing is all of these things can easily be checked and so can military medals (especially the Medal of Honor).
As crappy as it is that someone would be so stupid to lie about something like that, should they really go to jail? Wouldn’t loosing your job be enough punishment? In the case of Xavier Alvarez once he was called out they should have just voted him out of office. Usually once the person is called out they look ridiculous enough.
It definitely is not often that I side with the 9th Circuit court (most overturned court in the country) however I always try to stay on the side of the constitution and I think that they got it right. I guess I can see why the Supreme Court is usually split on these kinds of issues.