(I'm leaving out the adjective "fundamental") between a person pretending to have been a soldier in order to impress people and that only, and a person pretending to have been a soldier in order to impress people to obtain money or other lucre from them. Hillar fell into the second category.

Drew made a useful point - even though it was made for another purpose re: 2nd sentence - in this comment:

from 120mm
Some judges are just stupid. They were lawyers once, after all....
In truth, most all judges are lawyers and remain so while they are judges. Military judges have a triple whammy; they are judges, lawyers and military officers. Imagine the possibilities for stupidness in that combo - but also the possibilities for smartness.

The point is that everyone (non-lawyers included) carries with them a certain perspective on what the "Law" is. I'm not going to go into a long song and dance about how I would use that in legal strategy and tactics (yippee). But, the "Law" to any individual (if he or she admits it) is not the written law, whether in statute or court decision. It is far more than that.

So, the "Law" may be shaped by the decision-seeker (usually a lawyer) and by the decision-maker (usually a judge or jury). Now, in the Stolen Valor cases (and in the Marine Burial case), I felt that the "Law" (my view) upheld constitutionality and said so in SWC posts. Other folks (lawyers and non-lawyers) felt differently and so did SCOTUS.

In Hillar, the prosecutor shifted gears and, by going the "wire fraud" route, shaped the "Law of the Case". The judge agreed (since the indictment stood); and Hillar pleaded guilty:

As part of his plea, Hillar agreed to pay back $171,000 he made by lecturing universities, soldiers, and federal and local law enforcement agencies while falsely claiming he was a counter-terrorism expert and had earned doctorate from the University of Oregon.
Bottom Line: The "Law of the Case" is different from the "Law".

Regards

Mike