in the JSON response over the wire, does this get translated into a JSON boolean or is it a string over the wire? I think it will get marshalled into a string...

It needs to be a boolean -- not a string... 

See sample python session and notice the difference between ```true``` and ```'true'``` -- the former is a JSON boolean and the later is a string.
```python
Python 2.7.3 (default, Feb 27 2014, 19:58:35)
[GCC 4.6.3] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import json
>>> json.dumps({'enabled':'true'})
'{"enabled": "true"}'
>>> json.dumps({'enabled':True})
'{"enabled": true}'
```