His NSA Spying Is the Kind of Thing Which Caused the Revolutionary War Against King George - photo by motivatedphotos.com
The government's ongoing violation of fundamental civil liberties would have been very familiar to the men who gathered in 1791 to adopt the Bill of Rights. The Founding Fathers battled an 18th Century version of the wholesale surveillance that the government is accused of doing today - an expansive abuse of power by King George II and III that invaded the colonists communications privacy.
Using "writs of assistance" (another name for "general warrants") the King authorized his agents to carry out wide-ranging searches of anyone, anywhere, and anytime regardless of whether they were suspected of a crime. These "hated writs" spurred colonists toward revolution and directly motivated James Madison's crafting of the Fourth Amendment..
1
1
1
