Well, yeah, he can do whatever he wants. He coulda put out a hit on the agents investigating him and significantly delayed the proceedings. In terms of free will, possible. In terms of practicality, a really bad idea.
And sure, millions of people could have his back, but unfortunately those aren't the people with the guns or militaries, they're the people who tend to stay home posting comments on the internet.
>That's terrible, I can't believe you would suggest that.
Yeah, FSM forbid we actually think arguments through to their logical conclusions. How dare I!
I am pointing out the absurdity and irrelevance of your argument with respect to the discussion at hand. You offered the laser-sharp insight that hey, people can ignore the rule of law, so don't say they can't! It's a semantic distinction and I am taking it to the extreme where while it is still valid, it is ridiculous. Anyone can put out a hit on Federal agents, there are no physical laws to prevent one from doing so. However anyone who values continued survival within civilized society functionally cannot.
I'm not sure if you're being dense as a rhetorical device or what, but I can't believe I'm having to spell this out. On HN of all places. I'd expect this level of discourse from /r/eli5 or similar, not here.
> You offered the laser-sharp insight that hey, people can ignore the rule of law, so don't say they can't! It's a semantic distinction and I am taking it to the extreme where while it is still valid, it is ridiculous.
I don't know. Do remind me, how many US government officials got punished after being caught doing illegal warrantless wiretaps?
You can ignore the rule of law, as long as you are the government, that's not an issue as long as you can bleat "national security" enough times.
Some people like to operate by the motto, "Do no evil". So yes, he can wave off a court order. And millions of informed people will have his back.