The oath Snowden took to the consitution was more important than one to secrecy

Edward Snowden is by no means a traitor as he has been called by some. He has sacrificed his freedoms in the US and his entire life here in order to reveal the activities of the NSA, he did not harm the US in any way shape or form. There has yet to be any official claiming this with any sort of proof his actions had a negative side affect on the US. Snowden had access to documents that could seriously cripple our national security and yet he did not take these documents and sell them to an enemy nation which would have brought him a small fortune. Snowden has done exactly what is in the best interest of the nation by revealing activities that would otherwise go unknown. There has yet to be an explanation on how the American people knowing what the NSA does to gather information en masse has hindered the NSA. People knowing of their tactics has not stopped them and there is literally nothing we could do to stop it. The American government has become more and more infamous of late by granting itself more power and there is no one to hold them accountable. The NSA has failed to provide any evidence suggesting that their tactics are worth giving up our privacy. Amendment IV (Privacy of the Person and Possessions) The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. There is a reason the average person cannot log onto your email account and its because of a password. It is a virtual vault of personal information. In other words the NSA would have to break into the account to gather information on people and yet they have provided no warrant or cause for such seizure of personal data to be stored indefinitely. I understand your interpretation of these amendments but the fact is the virtual world can be patented which means we have rights to it. For example: Worlds Inc. filed a lawsuit against Activision for a virtual world infringement proving that you do have rights to virtual information. . http://www.joystiq.com... Being a highly technological society we tend to store more and more of our personal information online due to its efficiency over paper. Essentially what has happened is the papers have become virtual. If someone were to do exactly as the NSA has and hack into their databases they would be called a criminal, but isn't that the definition of hypocrisy? From Amendment 5: nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. I have proven that people do have rights to the virtual world and being that we protect our emails with passwords they are indeed private. The NSA had to hack our emails to gather information without probable cause. Whether or not he was found guilty by the government has no relevance as they are the ones guilty of illegal acts. Its safe to say that they are not going to confess to committing wrongs and turn themselves in. The American Civil Liberties Union has already filed suit against the NSA for their tactics and now Snowden has revealed their crimes to be far broader than previously thought. This is the union that was created to protect our rights so the fact that they see the NSA as committing crimes says quite a bit. By the definition of the Espionage Act he has violated it but this should not negate what they have been doing. The government has a bad habit of putting itself above the law rendering them untouchable. . http://www.theguardian.com...