If the attorney general of the United States says that an intelligence-gathering operation has been determined to be lawful, a company should be able to rely on that determination.Man.
Language Liberalism Freethought Birds Verbing Weirds Language only if you're expecting it to work in a simple way. This is a special case of the more general truth that Language Weirds. Only when a republic's life is in danger should a man uphold his government when it is in the wrong. There is no other time. The church says Earth is flat; but I have seen its shadow on the moon, and I have more confidence in a shadow than the church. If we can't find Heaven, there are always bluejays.
To a degree, he's right.
ReplyDeleteThey "should" be able to trust when the attorney general says it's legal that it is, indeed, legal.
But that's where the point ends. It doesn't relieve them of responsibility for doing something that is wrong.
I SHOULD be able to trust my local government's public works to have the traffic lights in good working order. But when I approach an intersection and the lights are clearly out, I can't just say "I trust them" and keep driving. I have to slow down, even come to a stop and make sure it's safe to proceed.
There were plenty of obvious warning signs for these corporations to have exercised caution. After all, there were companies who DID NOT go along with the attorney general. They had the same info available to them as ATT had.