Wired

Finally, a Ruling That Recognizes Snowden as a Whistleblower

My comment there, double posting here and there

Misleading headline.

The ruling is all about the NSA program, not Snowden at all. Not in the tiniest bit. If this data was prosecutors evidence, it would be inadmissible, fruit of the poisoned tree. So in my view we have to look at the NSA and Snowden separately. Even if the Supreme court rules like this judge, Snowden will still face prosecution. I’d respect him more if he had stayed here and Ellsberg did. While he may not have sold his data, he sure gave it away to the FSB. Now they have it, our strategic opponent and a nation led by a man that poisons the opposition.

If we as a nation had kept the sunset promises about the Patriot Act, kept to our traditional standards for searches and surveillance, we would have been far better off, and just as safe. That would have been the “best” way to handle this.