“Apple Inc. will tell a federal judge this week in legal papers that its fight with the FBI over accessing a locked and encrypted iPhone should be kicked to Congress, rather than decided by courts,” Tami Abdollah reports for The Associated Press. “Apple’s effort would move the contentious policy debate between digital privacy rights and national security interests to Congress, where Apple — one of the world’s most respected technology companies — wields considerably more influence. Apple spent nearly $5 million lobbying Congress last year, mostly on tax and copyright issues. Key lawmakers have been openly divided about whether the government’s demands in the case go too far.”
“A lead attorney for Apple, Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., previewed for the AP some of the company’s upcoming arguments in the case.,” Abdollah reports. “‘The government is really seeking to push the courts to do what they haven’t been able to persuade Congress to do,’ Boutrous said in an AP interview. ‘That’s to give it more broad, sweeping authority to help the Department of Justice hack into devices, to have a backdoor into devices, and the law simply does not provide that authority.'”
“The White House spokesman, Josh Earnest, this week disputed that Congress should settle the issue and called the government’s request narrow. Earnest said the magistrate judge ‘came down in favor of our law enforcement’ after evaluating arguments by Apple and the FBI,” Abdollah reports. “‘Sending complicated things to Congress is often not the surest way to get a quick answer,’ Earnest said. ‘In fact, even asking some of the most basic questions of Congress sometimes does not ensure a quick answer.'”
“The U.S. has used the All Writs Act at least three times — most recently in 1980 — to compel a phone company to provide a list of dialed numbers, but in those cases the technology and tools already existed, said Jennifer Granick, an attorney and director of civil liberties and the Stanford Center for Internet and Society,” Abdollah reports. “‘This is a terrorism investigation that’s solved. We know who did it,’ Granick said. ‘What happens so often is we do something that’s justified for terrorism, but it’s going to get used in regular, run-of-the-mill cases.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: One of the main aims of Islamic terrorism is to erode the freedoms of U.S. citizens, thereby implicitly, if not explicitly, destroying the U.S. as we know it.
If you back the U.S. government in this case, then you back the terrorists.
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Apple’s fight with U.S. could speed development of devices impervious to government intrusion – February 24, 2016
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Congressman Ted Lieu asks FBI to drop demand that Apple hack iPhones – February 23, 2016
In the fight to hack iPhones, the U.S. government has more to lose than Apple – February 23, 2016
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John McAfee blasts FBI for ‘illiterate’ order to create Apple iPhone backdoor – February 23, 2016
Some family members of San Bernardino victims back U.S. government – February 23, 2016
Apple supporters to rally worldwide today against U.S. government demand to unlock iPhone – February 23, 2016
U.S. government seeks to force Apple to extract data from a dozen more iPhones – February 23, 2016
Apple CEO Cook: They’d have to cart us out in a box before we’d create a backdoor – February 22, 2016
Tim Cook’s memo to Apple employees: ‘This case is about more than a single phone’ – February 22, 2016
Obama administration: We’re only demanding Apple hack just one iPhone – February 17, 2016