|
When Edward Snowden leaked that the national security state apparatus was mass-spying on American citizens, people of conscience had to choose between justice and legitimacy when assessing his actions. As we’ll see, that choice was not binary, though I admit my title has an uncomfortable binariness.
Snowden’s leak might have been of questionable legitimacy—and this point is arguable—but it was not dubious in justice. Indeed, the NSA was acting both unjustly and illegitimately against us all. Snowden abused his security clearance to let us know Americans were being spied on.
Is the rule-of-law crowd going to tell us that Snowden should have used proper whistleblower channels if that risked leaving us all in the dark about unconstitutional domestic spying? Would the fine minds at The UnPopulist have Snowden thrown in federal prison?
|
