WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a federal law making it a crime to lie about receiving the Medal of Honor and other prized military awards, with justices branding the false claim “contemptible” but nonetheless protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The court voted 6-3 in favour of Xavier Alvarez, a former local elected official in California who falsely said he was a decorated war veteran and had pleaded guilty to violating the 2006 law, known as the Stolen Valor Act. The law, enacted when the U.S. was at war in Afghanistan and Iraq, was aimed at people making phoney claims of heroism in battle.

The ruling, written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, ordered that the conviction be thrown out.

“Though few might find the respondent’s statements anything but contemptible, his right to make those statements is protected by the Constitution’s guarantee of freedom of speech and expression. The Stolen Valor Act infringes upon speech protected by the First Amendment,” Kennedy said.

“We’re obviously very pleased with the decision, as is our client,” Alvarez’s original federal public defender, Brianna Fuller, said in an email. While we have utmost respect for our men and women in uniform, we’ve always believed that we honour them best by protecting the ‘precepts of the Constitution for which they fought,’ as Justice Kennedy said in this morning’s opinion.“

Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, said he had no comment.

B.G. “Jug” Burkett, the Vietnam veteran whose 1998 book, Stolen Valor, inspired the law, said he was disappointed with the ruling.

“It kind of blows my mind,” Burkett said. “The Medal of Honor! The vast majority of the people who were awarded that were killed in action in the service of their country, and we can’t protect that decoration from disrespect?”

Burkett said he hopes another, stronger law will be drafted.

“It was a win to finally get Americans to recognize that this was going on, and it wasn’t right,” he said.

The high court has in recent years rejected limits on speech. The justices struck down a federal ban on videos showing graphic violence against animals and rejected a state law intended to keep violent video games away from children.