British Conservative Party member and former shadow home secretary David Davis says that data retention requirements being debated in the U.K. are “incredibly intrusive” and would only “catch the innocent and incompetent.” He’s right.

The United States was formed after a Revolutionary War against Britain so that we could live under a government more protective of liberty. The Fourth Amendment’s requirement of particularity with respect to warrants prevents our government from issuing blanket requirements that information about all of our communications be retained in case it’s needed for law enforcement.

At least we must hope so. Because some in our Congress seem to have little qualm about reversing the Revolutionary War’s results.