So now that the court agrees that the sentence for hacking email is 10 years, when do we start convicting the entire NSA, AT&T, on up to the Executive head (the President) for doing this to the entire USA? If there is no conviction for these people, then he is clearly not being treated equally under the law, and deserves to be set free.
Because States do not universalize their own rules & laws. The exempt themselves, and are above the moral obligation that the rest of us are expected to follow. They also control the language and will create a vast set of euphemisms to excuse their contradictory behavior.