Sometimes if you postpone something long enough, someone else will do the job.
Last week, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled the National Security Agency’s metadata collection program unlawful, I immediately saw it as a vindication of Edward Snowden and his “illegal” leaks.
It will be hard to charge the man with treason for uncovering programs that have been determined, in court, to be themselves treasonous — or at least unconstitutional.
But I was busy last week; didn’t have time to make the case.
Nicely, Noah Feldman made it for me, at Bloomberg View. “This is the most serious blow to date,” writes Feldman in his May 7 article, a blow against “the legacy of the USA Patriot Act and the surveillance overreach that followed 9/11.”
The linkage with Snowden is in no way an imposition on the story:
The first striking thing about the court’s opinion was how openly it relied on Snowden’s revelations of classified material. The court described how the program was known — by Snowden’s leaks. It also analyzed the NSA order to Verizon, leaked by Snowden, that proved the existence of the program and revealed indirectly the legal reasoning that the government relied on to authorize the metadata collection.
More importantly, Feldman recognizes that the decision rightly breaks “the bad precedent of secret law created by the NSA.”
A republic isn’t a republic if its laws are secret.
Now, of course, it’s time for Americans to cease their procrastination. If we don’t recognize that our government is out of control, no one else’s determination will matter.
Except, perhaps, history’s.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
7 replies on “Court Vindicates Snowden”
When the bad guys are our own government, We The People need to stand up to them. If they work under the guise of secret national security while undermining our liberties, they light of day must be shown upon them. This is not treasonous, they are the treasonous ones and need to be held accountable for what they’ve done. Raises and Promotions are NOT part of that accountability!
“For no people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and Virtue is preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders.” –Samuel Adams
Well said Paul. Snowden did a difficult thing and has become an outcast and a wanted man. If the President had a commitment to the Constitution and the Republic it created he would pardon Snowden. I’m grateful for an independent judiciary that had the courage to say enough to the national security state.
Paul, Big Brother will insist that it has the right to prosecute Snowden for breach of his contract and oath, regardless of the fact its actions he revealed were unconstitutional.
We won’t know the end is upon us until it’s too late. Until then, even those who know there is reason to worry will caution us not to panic or jump to conclusions. Everyone will think we’re being silly, that it can’t happen here. See what happens after Jade Helm.
It would be difficult for the government to prosecute Snowden only if this was a government that had some semblance of the rule of law applying to them. They don’t and Snowden is in as much danger from them as the day before the ruling was issued.
It would seem that charging a patriot with treason for activities that support the Constitution would also be treasonous.
Perhaps our new AG might motivate herself to go after those that have trashed the civil rights of Mr. Snowden instead of her witchhunt of trying to find someone guilty in Baltimore besides the black Democrats who have been running the place for the last 50 years.
Thanks for good article and commentary.Well said all.