This dynamic has been playing out for centuries. On July 3, 1776, John Adams, then a member of the Continental Congress from Massachusetts, wrote to his wife, Abigail, from Philadelphia pointing to the grievance he saw as the origin of the American Revolution—unreasonable search and seizure by the British. For generations, the colonial government had gone house to house searching for evidence without permission. Adams’s passion for balancing individual liberties with public safety would later help to shape the drafting of the Fourth Amendment.
