Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the suspect in the Boston marathon bombings, was not read his Miranda rights until a few days after he was arrested. Here are two excellent articles which explain the origin of this exception, why it is a dangerous idea, and how the Obama administration has expanded this exception.

By Emily Brazelon

By the incomparable Glen Greenwald

Now it turns out that not only was there a delay in reading Tsarnaev his Miranda rights, but his request for a lawyer were repeatedly denied, which is, as Glen Greenwald explains, worse.

Greenwald ends his eloquently column by quoting Thomas Paine and John Adams and pointing out that “Governments know that their best opportunity to institutionalize rights violations is when they can most easily manipulate the public into acquiescing to them by stoking public emotions of contempt against the individual target. For the reasons Paine and Adams explained, it is exactly in such cases – when public rage finds its most intense expression – when it is necessary to be most vigilant in defense of those rights.”