If you’re outraged by the Internal Revenue Service’s invasive questioning and harassment of Tea Party groups, why wouldn’t you be worried about the National Security Agency surreptitiously collecting bulk internet, email and phone data on millions of Americans? Aren’t both episodes examples of a government that’s out of control?

Not so fast, say some on the right. The NSA activity is less alarming, Professor Richard Epstein argued recently, because, among other things, “the military community” of which the agency is a part, “internalizes the norms against abuse in ways in which other government agencies do not.”