The government used facial recognition systems and other intrusive technologies to identify the participants, all the truckers. They got their license plates, etc. And then they froze their bank accounts. So they couldn’t get diesel for their trucks, they couldn’t buy food for their kids, they couldn’t pay for their education, they couldn’t pay their mortgages.”

It occurred to me that transactional freedom is as important as freedom of the press. If you have freedom of speech in the First Amendment, and yet when you exercise that speech, the government doesn’t like it, they can starve you to death, they can throw you out of your home because you can’t pay your mortgage or your rent, then that is meaningless.”

It was just they were doing something the government didn’t like. The government was able to destroy their lives, and that is a very dangerous power to give government.