The Obama administration’s 22-page White paper setting out the supposed legal basis for NSA surveillance demonstrates that the Obama administration, by contrast, is not relying on legal defenses that are too clever. Rather, it's relying on defenses that are too flimsy and weak. Many of these are warmed over versions of arguments that principled judges and officials rejected during the Bush administration, and that the Supreme Court is now being asked to reject once and for all.
