Orin Kerr writes about the widespread misunderstandings of the Patriot Act–misunderstandings that he has done more than anyone to clear up. He also asks whether those misunderstandings are a good or a bad thing. The case that they are a good thing is that false fears will help avert real dangers of government overreach. I think that the most charitable (and accurate) interpretation of John Ashcroft’s famous “phantoms of lost liberty” testimony is that he was denying precisely that proposition. I also think Ashcroft is right.