Convictions: Slate's blog on legal issues

Thank You, Come Again?

David, I had precisely the same reaction to the jubilant op-ed in the Washington Post today—the one that crowed about the “sensible balance” struck by lawmakers who, in order to “avert another end run around FISA,” have now made it “clear that all intelligence surveillance is governed by FISA.” Mr. President, as punishment for your decision to break the surveillance law and mislead others so they could assist you in breaking the surveillance law, we are demanding … nay, we are insisting  ... that this time the law really is the law. Someone help me understand why it’s a good deal when one side gets everything it wants and the other side gets what it thought it had in the first place?