Texas’ Stolen Valor bill to aid businesses and employers
My search engine alerts are firing on all cylinders as State legislatures begin the season with easy-to-pass stolen valor bills, but this one from Texas caught my eye because it is so different from the others. The new bill passed the Texas Senate unanimously. It empowers business owners to fire employes and terminate contracts with folks who lie about their service.
“When I heard news stories of individuals claiming fictitious military records, I was dismayed to learn that Texas law did not give express legal authority for employers to terminate a contract for such actions,” Taylor said in a press release. “After talking with fellow veterans in our community, I immediately got to work drafting legislation to fix this problem.
“The sacrifices made by our men and women in uniform are beyond measure, and by unanimously passing the Stolen Valor Act, the Texas Senate has sent a unified message of support to all those who have bravely served our nation.”
Of course, we’ve seen countless fellows who use their fictitious military service to benefit their businesses, and when it comes out, folks that they’ve hoodwinked need an escape, because if they lie about their military service, it’s more than likely true that they’ll lie in other business dealings.
Category: Stolen Valor Act
LTCOL/PFC Chevy might want to hide his “Hollywood” pilot helmet.
I think the best abbreviation for Cheddar-boi is “LSoS” vice LTCOL or PFC.
It looks like All-Points Logistics Houston office may be in for some trouble.
That’s two days in a row that Green Thumb has gotten the jump on Hack. I need to come out of my safe room in that North Philadelphia housing development more often.
I wonder how soon we’ll see some poser(s) suing to get that overturned as soon as it’s passed and signed into law?
Hate to burst your bubble, but Texas is an at-will state and an employer can get rid of any employee at any time for no reason. About the only time you hear of any “wrongful firing” sort of suits is when the stated reason for the firing is wrong. Otherwise, you walk in wearing green shirt on a day your boss mentally decided is pink shirt day and he says you’re gone – you’re gone. This is a feel-good do-nothing bill.
“At Will” employment does have limitations. If an employment contract is signed it takes precedence over “At Will” rules. Unions in particular are generally not subject to the rule. Of course, government employees are not.
I know the law sounds harsh but it levels the field for employers. An employee my terminate their employment at any time without notice. That is by far the more common thing to happen.
Absolutely correct.. of course, Texas is also a state with very few unions, but you are absolutely correct – contracted employees have a few protections.
If there is a lawsuit it will probably come from Austin, the San Francisco of Texas. True story: in the Houston paper a couple of days ago it mentioned an Austin lawyer named Jerry Galow. I could almost hear it: “No, he’s dead – my name is CALOW”
Now that is some funny shit. I had a distant family member who was a lawyer there years ago. Not sure how good of a lawyer he was but he did have a reputation for his expertise in other areas.
John Wesley Hardin
Wondered about that – been past his grave in El Paso more times than I can count.
Purportedly the coroner did not want to piss off John Selman, who maintained he had shot Hardin face to face in a fair fight, but saw a clear entrance wound in the back and exit through Hardin’s eye. Reportedly he said “If Mr. Hardin was shot in the eye, the shooter displayed excellent marksmanship. If he was shot in the back, the shooter displayed excellent judgment.” Sadly, I am told by a prominent Western historian (Leon Metz) that the story is urban legend.. but it’s still a great story.
Although many try to claim this quote, to the best of my knowledge it was his.
“I never killed anyone who didn’t need killing.” – John Wesley Hardin
I also read somewhere that Selman Sr. was looking at Hardin’s face in the mirror over the bar when he shot him in the back of the head — so it WAS “face-to-face.”
When Hardin said he would kill you — which he allegedly said to Selman Jr. after Jr. arrested his “doxy” — it was not an idle threat.
Selman Sr. was killed in a shootout with US Marshal George
Scarborough (on April 6, 1896)
El Paso was a great place for history buffs – the old Acme saloon site, Hardin’s grave – if you go up to Las Cruces and take highway 70 to Alamogordo/White Sands/Holloman AFB, you pass Pat Garrett’s grave and murder site, then at White Sands the old Judge Fountain ‘murder site’ (where they found the wagon – no murder site was ever found)
Weren’t human ashes reportedly found in the campfire near the wagon?
And I seem to recall an article (Bob Boze Bell in “True West”?) stating that one of the malefactors later said the boy’s head was split like a watermelon?
And I also recall the article mentioned one of the suspected murderers, near the end of his life, gave a Masonic stickpin to someone who returned it to the Widow Fountain; she confirmed it was her husband’s.
Wish I had the citations to hand.
“Interesting times” to be certain.
Then again, maybe I’m conflating differnet stories or “misremembering” what I’ve read. It’s hard to say without citations.
“Uh, whats a Yoot”?
This may also give companies and local/state government agencies/organizations the ability cancel contracts for this reason, so not so toothless, in the grand scheme of things.
Good point, if a poser had an employment contract this might cover the termination.
I’d like to report that photo. It made me uncomfortable.
I’m going to report myself for feeling uncomfortable with your being uncomfortable.
That photo is awesome!
It is about time Commander Phil Monkress of All-Points Logistics got some photographic PR.
Whatever happened to Giduck?
As many times as he has been flushed…
I hate that guy that is always posting about me. Some day, you’ll understand the skills that a man can learn in 58 days of gritty hard nosed US Army Basic training.
The result? I’m either out saving the world or posting here….just always not in that order.
sincerely
John “Faker 6” Giduck
A law with Teeth nice ! ! ! !
Now if we could get a law like this in Arizona.
Wrong remedy.
The Texas legislature should simply pass a bill repealing any law that prevents an employer from terminating an employee or contract where it is found the employee or contractor made a false material representation.
Period.
Instead, we are adding another law to cut out another class of people.
This seems to be one of those things that is rooted just as much in hype and the press rather than in the solution. This Senator and all his friends can come out and say “we protected the service of military members!” instead of saying “we repealed a law that held businesses hostage to fraudulently entered contracts / hirings.
In the world of political optics, it is better to add laws than repeal the bad ones.
“another class of people” . . . ?
I’m going to leave that carcass alone.
Posers are a class of people?
Remove the C and the L and then I’ll agree.
class: n, “a number of persons or things regarded as forming a group by reason of common attributes, characteristics, qualities, or traits”
So yes, people who are engaged in stolen valor are of the same class.
There may be no specific law to repeal, gitarcarver. It may be a case where the TX courts as a matter of case law regard contracts as sacrosanct in the absence of proof of fraudulent action by one party. If that’s the case, an employer firing an employee who had lied on their job application risks being taken to court if there is an employment contract. The cost of going to court in such a case would quite possibly outweigh the benefit.
That’s particularly true if the employment contract treats reasons for termination-for-cause as negotiable items under the contract. I believe many union contracts do so.
Bottom line: there may be no existing statute for which repeal would achieve the desired remedy, and the law may or may not be necessary regardless of the existence of such an existing statute due to current TX case law. I’m not a lawyer familiar with TX case and employment law, nor do I have the time to research the matter – so I don’t know either way. If you have such expertise, please feel free to correct what I’ve said above.
Hondo,
I am not sure there is a law either but if there is repealing the law would be a better remedy.
However, if you reread my first statement, I would rather the Texas legislature say a person or contract can be terminated when there is a material misrepresentation made.
That would mean if a person lies about their education to get a job, they can be terminated. If a company lists a minority owner to get a contract but the owner is not a minority, the contract can be cancelled.
I understand that this site focuses on Stolen Valor, but why should businesses be afraid to fire anyone who lies to get a job?
Perhaps this is just the first step in getting a broader bill through later.
The Phildoesque Monkressity of this article is amazing!
As long as the alleged service was a part of the reason the person was hired I would agree with this.
I m not an authority but have had to hire – and fire- folks over the years and have both written contracts and signed employment contracts – generally there is a stipulation somewhere, even on a simple employment application, that the discovery of any false information is grounds for immediate dismissal.
The bill allows an employment contract to be severed by an employer of an employee who, in obtaining that employment or a benefit of that employment, falsified his military record. The law is expressly tied to the Texas law going to false claims of service (Texas Penal Code Sec. 32.54 FRAUDULENT OR FICTITIOUS MILITARY RECORD) In other words, if an employee has done what 32.54 prohibits (false claim of service, false claim of awards, decorations…etc.) then the employer may sever the employment contract w/o worrying about the fact that the contract has no language in it allowing severance for a falsehood regarding military service. Is this fraud? You bet. Is it needed? That’s a Texas issue.
Air Cav,
I am not disputing that it is fraud. (Which of course brings up the question “why can’t the person / contract be terminated for fraud without this bill?”)
Take this hypothetical: A town hires a City Manager based upon the resume which states the person won several awards for excellence from their previous employers. The resume also states that they are a member in good standing with the ICMA (International City/County Management Association.) In addition, the person states they have never been arrested, charged or convicted of a crime. In addition, the person has won the every popular “Presidential Achievement Award for Physical Fitness.”
The town, being small, cannot afford to pay to look into the backgrounds of every applicant (and a head hunter service for City Managers runs about $25,000) so they take what is a great candidate based on the resume.
After a few months of on the job, the CM gets stopped by the police for suspicion of DUI. They run the license and it turns out the CM has convictions for DUI. That starts the ball rolling into spending money on the background which shows the person did not win any awards and was not a member if the ICMA.
My position would be that Texas would be better served to allow the contract of that CM to be terminated – not just if he had lied for non-existent or exaggerated service in the military.
I don’t like laws that single out groups or classes of people. Either we all play by the same rules or the rules don’t matter.
I think I get your point but, the fact is, laws discriminate on one basis or another. Where it is illegal to sleep under an overpass or a bridge, the law is discriminating. Who sleeps under bridges, sober, drug-free people with oodles of money? The discrimination is not illegal but it most certainly singles out a class of people implicitly, doesn’t it? Anyway, my personal take is that the law (proposed law, that is) is a matter for Texas to decide and I’m not a member of that country!
Future Coversation at a MacDonald’s in Texas:
French Fry Operator: “Yeah, when I was in the NAM, down by the DMZ, we did HALO’s all the time with our issued weapon the feared P-38. That is when I caught the PDTS as an escaped POW from a bamboo tiger cage.”
MacDonald’s Franchise Owner: “You are fired!”
Or Commander Phil Monkress of All-Points Logistics saying: “Your hired!”
The “feared P-38?” What, they were still using Lightnings in Vietnam?
I keed, I keed…
No, no, no! You got it all wrong! It was the can opener!
About that photo. We all get the “trauma and stress” part, “trauma” is on the left in the dress and “stress” is on the right in the polyester pantsuit. I looked at that photo in the past, so that is the “post-” part. The “trauma and stress” parts come before the “post-” part so I am disordered and I caught the PTS from that picture. And I think that I have a PhD – Piled Higher and Deeper. And my NDM is lonely on my 214, can you guys help me type in a bunch of other stuff to spruce it up a little? Ya know two stars on that blue musket thingy is better than one.
Hey, Governor McAuliffe of Virginia…you listening? If the Lone Star State can do this, so can our beloved Old Dominion. ;o)
P.S.: Also make lying about military service a cause for at-fault divorce. In other words, if a married person becomes a poser, the poser’s spouse has grounds to divorce AND get child custody (if said spouse can demonstrate fitness, that is).
McAuliffe support something like this? Yeah, right. Don’t hold your breath.