¶ … Quandary of Prosecuting Edward Snowden

The source of law that controls the prosecution of Edward Snowden is both federal and international law. Because Snowden is an American citizen who sought asylum overseas, he is outside of the direct jurisdiction of the U.S. government. Still, the U.S. government is the entity that wants Snowden for his crimes. Snowden has not committed any crimes except for those that violated the U.S.

Snowden can be charged and arrested by a state law-enforcement officer if he commits some sort of crime in that particular state. However, the crimes that Snowden has become notorious for were not committed at a state level, but rather at the federal level. Those crimes must get prosecuted in a federal setting, since they were committed against the nation as a whole.

The crux of the matter with the Snowden issue is that he transgressed federal law for ethical reasons. The young man believed that American citizens were losing their right to privacy, which he in turn believed was a crime. In that respect he did not violate moral laws, or substantive ones either. He violated U.S. federal law, but his violation did not transgress substantive or moral laws.

The primary goals and purposes of the criminal justice system justify criminal action against Snowden primarily because the law he broke involves national security (Louis, 2014). Regardless of Snowden's personal compunctions towards or against what he ascertained in his work with the N.S.A., he still felt he had a right to preserve the integrity of national security. He viewed classified information and went public with it (Louis, 2014), so the purpose of criminal action against Snowden is to preserve national security. Conceivably, the reason Snowden should be prosecuted is because revealing this type of information to the public could possibly compromise security in this country.

References

Louis, E. (2014). Treachery and its consequences. The Economist. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2014/01/snowden-case-prosecution