In Tune with The Times

I would be very much surprised if Obama were to heed The New York Times' call for clemency for Snowden, or, for that matter, The Guardian's one for a pardon. The fact that both newspapers have come out in his favor shows that the legal issue is not of paramount importance in this case. No one disputes that Snowden broke the law. But, as so many before him, he did so for a higher purpose. As a lawyer, I have a healthy respect for the law, but I also believe that sometimes you have to break it, in order to expose its inconsistency with what's decent, fair and just.

 As the NYT has so correctly put it, Snowden has done his country and the rest of the world "a great service." Too bad that Obama will not see it this way. 

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