Edward Snowden’s impact

[Commentary] I think there are other reasons besides surveillance law being complicated and Edwdard Snowden lacking a simple message as to why Snowden hasn’t had a big impact on American public opinion -- and also reasons that probably doesn’t matter for achieving Snowden’s goals. Although the Snowden disclosures have impacted public opinion about government surveillance in some ways, they haven’t caused a major shift. Different polls are worded in different ways and suggest different things. But my overall sense is that public opinion has long been roughly evenly divided on US government surveillance and continues to be roughly evenly divided post-Snowden.

[Orin Kerr is the Fred C. Stevenson Research professor at The George Washington University Law School]