Arguments and opinions should be up for discussion regardless of who the author is. No one is questioning the validity of the author's interpretation of the law

Arguments and opinions should be up for discussion regardless of who the author is. No one is questioning the validity of the author's interpretation of the law itself. It sounds like you're making an appeal to authority rather than an actual point about the article. The discussion isn't about how a law is being interpreted. This blog article is about how the Signal article can be interpreted by a tech informed lay person vs a judge and the security theater surrounding it.