The concept gives way too easily to an infuriating way of shooting down any argument: simply find someone of the same identity who disagrees (a crude example is the old justification for doing something racist: "I have a non-white friend who says this is OK").
It's a technical defense in a copyright suit, not a blanket justification for doing whatever you want online.
That's not a valid justification for doing anything.
Perhaps surprisingly, given the president's fumbling of late, Mr Obama managed to walk this fine line with something like grace.The government, he said, will only spy on friends and allies if there is a compelling justification for doing so.
They have not always provided a good enough justification for doing it, and they've done it too often".
If, indeed, the government had singled out A.I.G. for punitive treatment and it didn't have a strong and legal justification for doing so, Boies and his team might be on to something.
Just because you don't have a specious justification for something doesn't mean you can't do it.
The former will insist that current knowledge warrants doing something, while the latter point to uncertainties in that same knowledge as justification for doing less, or perhaps nothing.
And in a statement to The Huffington Post, Facebook offered justification for doing the research.
