Judge Favors Apple In iPhone Unlocking Case In New York (google.com)

The Washington Post reports that Apple has prevailed for the moment in its fight with the FBI over the agency's demand that Apple help them break the security of an iPhone — but not in the California case about the phone belonging to San Bernadino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook -- that more famous case, as we mentioned the other day, is of course not the only case with a phone the FBI would like to peek into. New York federal judge James Orenstein scoffs in his 50-page decision at government arguments that Apple should be compelled to produce a software solution that would give them full access to content of the phone belonging to a drug dealer's phone. [Orenstein] found that the All Writs Act does not apply in instances where Congress had the opportunity but failed to create an authority for the government to get the type of help it was seeking, such as having firms ensure they have a way to obtain data from encrypted phones.

He also found that ordering Apple to help the government by extracting data from the iPhone- which belonged to a drug dealer --would place an unreasonable burden on the company....

He also expressed concern about conferring too much authority in the government. "Nothing in the government's arguments suggests any principled limit on how far a court may go in requiring a person or company to violate the most deeply-rooted values to provide assistance to the government the court deems necessary," he said. Whether the same logic will prevail in California is yet unclear; the New York decision is not binding on any other court.

Comments

And I scoff at his opinion.

[BrendaEM]

Everyone who stands to gain power will surly opt for totalitarian control.

All Writs in danger

[v1]

If this goes far enough and it looks like it's going to get put up to SCOTUS, it's very likely the feds wil back down. Because then All Writs goes under the supreme microscope and may itself get ruled unconstitutional. THAT is something the FBI doesn't want to happen, because it's too useful of a law to lose. They're playing a dangerous game of chicken here. That NYC judge spelled it out, All Writs is a blank check. It's not even a matter of "inadequate protections against abuse"... it has essentially NO limits at all. The law just has to say "we need you to cooperate", and you have to do what they tell you to do, unless you can prove that it's clearly too much effort to demand. So if they can make a case that it's not too difficult for you to do, you have to do it, yours or anyone else's rights be damned. That'll make it a tough sell to keep on the books if SCOTUS gets involved.

Go look up "writ of assistance". In theory it was a "you can't interfere with my doing my govt job", but in practice it was typically applied as a "you are required to cooperate with and assist me in performing my government job, otherwise you're interfering with me". (it was a similar blank check, and was often used as a perpetual univeral search warrant for customs) That's one of a handful of principle complaints we had a few hundred years ago while living under England. I have NO idea how All Writs got on OUR books after we so clearly despised its grandfather, and it needs to go away. So I'm all for Apple talking this to the top.

Re:EDNY

[Anonymous Coward]

From what I can see, this Brooklyn decision was argued by both Apple and the relevant Law enforcement.
This has allowed the judge to hear both sides and probably make a more considered judgement.

The San Bernardino case was ex-parte, so Apple was never able to make any submission before the order was made.

If nothing else, it proves that ex-parte orders of this magnitude should not be permitted.