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by Joe Weil
November 20, 2025
America’s founders knew the surest path to tyranny was unchecked power over the flow of information. So they put in place protections for channels of communication, blocked government control of the press, and prohibited warrantless seizure of property.
But today we carry in our pockets devices that the Constitution’s framers never imagined — smartphones — that have quietly become tools of surveillance and control.
The Founders’ commitment to secure private communication was more than theory. The Post Office Act of 1792 prohibited unauthorized opening of letters, and the Fourth Amendment extended broad protections to personal correspondence. To this day, opening someone else’s mail is a federal felony, and postal employees face criminal penalties if they tamper with or disclose the messages entrusted to them.
