Civil Disobedience and Voluntary Punishment

IntroChris and I were talking about Chelsea Manning, and this topic came up and we found ourselves on opposing sides. I think it is an interesting topic, to say the least, and I'd love to debate it with someone. The voting mechanism is select winner with an ELO threshold of 3000. The voting period is 2 weeks. TopicIn a functioning democracy, those who commit acts of civil disobedience against morally dubious laws or practices ought to voluntarily accept punishment for their act of disobedience. DefinitionsFunctioning democracy - a representative or direct democracy in which individuals possess meaningful rights and freedoms (like due process of law and the right to vote), in which socio-pollitical conditions are relatively stable (i. e. not riven by civil war), in which transfers of power generally occur peacefully and voluntarily, and in which the democratic processes are not systematically rigged, corrupt, or effectively predetermined by the government. Civil Disobedience - an act which violates the law in which the actor(s) (a) sincerely believe in the moral rectitude of their actions; (b) intend to draw attention via their disobedience to a law or practice which they believe needs to be reassessed, exposed, altered, or rejected; (c) clearly communicate that their actions are meant to draw attention to said law or practice and to generate either reassessment, exposure, alteration, or rejection of said law or practice; and (d) acted non-violently (inflicted no physical injury) in their specific act of disobedience. Individuals like MLK, with his sit-ins, engaged in civil disobedience, but, in a way, so too did people like Snowden who violated laws to expose practices which they believed were unethical. Morally Dubious - of uncertain moral standing; likely morally impermissible, but possibly morally permissible; that which a reasonable person, operating within established cultural conventions (i. e. not fringe), could question as moral Ought - indicates moral desirabilityAccept - to consent to; in this case: to submit to willingly without attempt to evade arrest or trialPunishment - a penalty meted out by the state in response to a criminal or misdemeanor offense after due process of lawRules1. No forfeits2. Citations must be provided in the text of the debate3. No new arguments in the final speeches4. Observe good sportsmanship and maintain a civil and decorous atmosphere5. No trolling6. No "kritiks" of the topic (challenging assumptions in the resolution)7. My opponent accepts all definitions and waives his/her right to add resolutional definitions8. For all undefined terms, individuals should use commonplace understandings that fit within the logical context of the resolution and this debate (unless otherwise specified in R1)9. The BOP is evenly shared10. The first round is for acceptance only11. Rebuttals of new points raised in an adversary's immediately preceding speech may be permissible at the judges' discretion even in the final round (debaters may debate their appropriateness)12. Violation of any of these rules, or of any of the R1 set-up, merits a lossStructureR1. AcceptanceR2. Pro's Case; Con's CaseR3. Pro generic Rebuttal; Con generic RebuttalR4. Pro generic Rebuttal; Con generic RebuttalR5. Pro generic Rebuttal and Crystallization; Con generic Rebuttal and CrystallizationThanks. .. .. .to whomever accepts for this debate.