Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein. (Gage Skidmore / CC BY-SA 2.0)

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein has made a promise in The Guardian to pardon NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, whose revelation in 2013 of secret government spying ruled illegal by federal judges “was among the most important in US history.”

“It showed us that the relationship between the people of the United States and the government has gone off track and needs a major course correction,” Stein wrote.

The fourth amendment of the constitution provides that a court must find probable cause that an individual has committed a crime before issuing a warrant, and forbids systematic spying on the American people. The requirement of individualized suspicion should prohibit this type of dragnet surveillance. Spying on whole populations is not necessary, and is actually counterproductive. If elected president I will immediately pardon Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning and John Kiriakou for their important work in exposing the massive, systematic violation of our constitutional rights. I would invite them to the White House to publicly acknowledge their heroism, and create a role for them in the Stein-Baraka Green party administration to help us create a modern framework that protects personal privacy while still conducting effective investigations where warranted. The American people have a right to privacy. My hope is that Obama uses his power to pardon Snowden now. The debate he began must be continued so we find a resolution that protects the freedom of press, association, religion and speech as well as the privacy of people in the United States and around the world.

—Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.