Shortly after it was disclosed by then Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald and NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden that the NSA was running roughshod over the constitutional rights of the American people, I filed two class action lawsuits, on behalf of myself and a client, Charles Strange, who lost his son, a NSA cryptologist, in the Afghan war. These lawsuits not only ask for large monetary damages, but also for an injunction against the US government spying on over 300 million citizens in violation of the Patriot and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Acts.

The laws make it crystal clear that the NSA, CIA, FBI or any other American government agency can only eavesdrop on persons who are under investigation for being in contact with foreign terrorists, or who are under criminal investigation. What Greenwald, the Guardian and Snowden revealed was a massive ongoing NSA program that collects so-called metadata, which intrudes into the most intimate details of a person's life, accessing the cell phone, internet and social media communications of nearly the entire US populace. It is, in effect, the biggest and most dangerous violation of constitutional rights in American history.

The obvious effect of this outrage is to chill the free speech, associational and due process rights of all Americans, as now they are under constant surveillance by a government that over 80% of the people, according to Pew Research polling, distrusts, after decades of scandal and corruption by our executive and legislative branches.

On Monday, in ruling on motions for preliminary injunction to stop this unlawful conduct during the pendency of our cases leading up to trial, a courageous federal judge in Washington DC, Richard J Leon, issued a historic decision that the NSA, under the auspices and approval of the Obama administration and complicit Democrat and Republican senators and congressman on Capital Hill, had likely violated, at a minimum, the fourth amendment of the US constitution, which protects American citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures.

Harking back to our nation's founding fathers, Judge Leon basically excoriated the government for trashing the principles upon with the country was conceived, and through American blood, realized. Indeed, with no lack of respect for modern day Britain, had King George III had the capability of the NSA and its sister spy agencies, our founding fathers never would have made it to Philadelphia to debate and sign the Declaration of Independence. They would have been picked up, arrested and executed for treason and our nation would never have been born.

While Judge Leon stayed his preliminary injunction order to allow the government to appeal, he made it clear that if the NSA continued to violate the law, and his order upheld, there would be hell to pay once the preliminary injunction order comes back into his courtroom. And, while the ruling is on appeal, our co-plaintiff, Charles Strange, and I have the right to take discovery. This means that we can gather evidence that will likely disclose more than even the Guardian and Snowden have thus far revealed.

As an American, and a proud one, I thank the Guardian and Edward Snowden for their courage in reporting the truth about NSA's unconstitutional actions. Without them, the entire US citizenry would have been left in the dark about this communist-like, totalitarian attack on human rights, which one would expect from countries like Putin's Russia or China, but not in the United States of America.

• This commentary was amended on 17 December 2013 to correct a reference to the Prism program.