ACLU: Edward Snowden is a Whistleblower

[Number23]

57. And here is a bit about two of those lawsuits

...But the Idaho native knows how she feels about the prospect of anyone tracking calls from her cellphone: She’s outraged. “It’s none of their business what I’m doing — who I call, when I call, how long I talk,” Smith, 32, said in a telephone interview. She added, “I think it’s awesome that I have the right to sue the president. I’m just a small-town girl.”

...“It’s kind of the American way to stand up to authority when you feel something is wrong. I don’t live in Russia or China, where I’d probably disappear if I did this,” Peter Smith said. “Why would anyone care about Anna’s phone records? She’s a mom, has two kids, lives in Idaho. She engages in normal mom activities.”

...“I follow the news very little,’’ Smith said. “I work full time and have two young kids. . . . To be honest, I don’t fully understand the law aspect of it and maybe not even the political aspect.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/northern-idaho-mom-sues-president-over-government-surveillance-program/2013/07/25/4994d1d4-f092-11e2-bed3-b9b6fe264871_story_1.html

and

"...A $3 billion class-action complaint by Mary Ann and Charles Strange of Philadelphia was believed to be the first civil case against the Obama administration since last week's blockbuster disclosure in published reports about the super-secret National Security Agency surveillance efforts.

...The Stranges have sued Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder, NSA director Keith Alexander, Verizon, government agencies and the judge who signed the secret order on phone monitoring. ... The lawsuit offered no specifics of any targeted surveillance. The Stranges based their allegations on "information and belief." http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/11/politics/nsa-court-challenges

I agree with the Idaho mom that it is awesome that you can sue the president if you think that your government is doing something wrong. I also agree that other countries would not be nearly as accommodating. But the whole "because people are suing, this means this case has merit" is stupid. Some of the lawsuits may have merit but these two links very clearly show that not all of them do.