As an individual on the receiving end, an illegal warrant is one that your counsel can defend yourself against. And that is precisely why the Lavabit fiasco has me so agitated. Large, financially secure companies do one of two things–get their general counsel to tell law enforcement to eat dogfood or roll over. For small companies it’s virtually always roll over, because defending against illegal warrants is extremely expensive.
Also, illegal warrant isn’t a contradiction. If all judges were equal in their understanding and application of law then yes, I would agree with you. But they are human beings, with failings and misunderstandings just like you and me. And secret courts with secret warrants makes the entire process much higher stakes.
SamSam, I don’t think we are disagreeing on fundamental principles. However overreach and misinterpretation of law happens every day. And national security letters, FISA courts, and overly broad warrants must be held to a higher standard.
(crap, now I am positively on a watch list :D)
