Sheldon Richman on Whether Edward Snowden Is a Lawbreaker

Most people believe that Edward Snowden, who has confirmed that the U.S. government spies on us, broke the law. Even many of his defenders concede this. While in one sense the statement "Snowden broke the law" may be trivially true, writes Sheldon Richman, in another, deeper sense it is untrue. He may have violated the terms of legislation passed by Congress and signed by a president, but a venerable line of thought says legislation is not the same thing as law.