Edward Snowden Civil Disobedient

Civil disobedience can be defined as a peaceful form of protest where individuals do not comply with the law. People engage in civil disobedience with hopes of changing a law they do not like or simply to spread awareness of an issue. Edward Snowden is a man who has been generalized as a civil disobedient. Snowden was under a contract with the NSA when he leaked classified information. Snowden revealed that United States agents were collecting telephone records and internet activity from citizens. Many argue as to whether Snowden’s actions were justifiable and done with pure intentions of informing the public; or whether Snowden was violating the laws and served as a traitor to his country. A. Jay Adler and William E. Scheuerman are two people …show more content…
Scheuerman states, “Here I argue that we should interpret Snowden's actions as meeting most of the demanding tests outlined in sophisticated political thinking about civil disobedience. To be sure, some scholars and even prominent political figures have already described his actions as an example of legitimate civil disobedience”. Throughout Scheuerman’s piece, he presents information which justifies Snowden being called a civil disobedient. Scheuerman defends Snowden by including the point that Snowden only wanted to help the NSA and not tear it apart. Snowden can be proven a civil disobedient because he knowingly broke the law to inform the people on what was going on. Snowden did this out of his own consciousness and had pure intentions. Snowden had no intent on bringing the NSA down, rather he just wanted to improve the circumstances. A popular opinion that came about was that the NSA should not be spying on its own people. Those in support of that opinion tend to see Snowden as a civil disobedient who wanted to provide a good service to his fellow citizens. In comparison to Scheuerman, Adler also discusses ‘civil disobedience’. Rather than defending Snowden and giving reasoning as to why Snowden can be called a civil disobedient, Adler defines what a civil disobedient is and hints at an unpopular belief that Snowden should not be considered a civil disobedient. Adler provides a thorough

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