“In Apple’s fight to knock down a court order requiring it to help FBI agents unlock a killer’s iPhone, the tech giant plans to argue that the judge in the case has overreached in her use of an obscure law and infringed on the company’s 1st Amendment rights, an Apple attorney said Tuesday,” Maura Dolan and Joel Rubin report for The Los Angeles Times.
“Theodore J. Boutrous — one in a pair of marquee lawyers the technology company’s hired to wage its high-stakes legal battle — outlined the arguments Apple plans when it responds to the court order this week,” Dolan and Rubin report. “At the heart of Apple’s response, Boutrous said, will be an objection to the use of the All Writs Act as the legal basis of the order compelling the company to assist the FBI.”
“‘The government here is trying to use this statute from 1789 in a way that it has never been used before. They are seeking a court order to compel Apple to write new software, to compel speech,’ Boutrous said in a brief interview with The Times. Boutrous said courts have recognized that the writing of computer code is a form of expressive activity — speech that is protected by the 1st Amendment,” Dolan and Rubin report. “He indicated that Apple would argue that Congress, not the courts, is the proper venue for a debate about ‘the security and privacy of citizens and law enforcement needs.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote on Monday:
The day the U.S. government can force anybody to write something is the day the United States of America as we know it dies.
If this keeps up, you won’t need to build a wall. Nobody will want in.
Of course, Apple has in its power to render even these methods, should they be forced upon the company, moot with future iOS updates that protect user privacy from government overreach.
It would be nice, however, not to have to depend on a company to enforce U.S. Constitutional rights, but rather to have a government – made up of people who swear oaths to the Constitution, no less – that protects citizens’ Constitutional rights jealously instead of wiping their asses with the document daily.
SEE ALSO:
Apple, the U.S. government, and security – February 24, 2016
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
Here are the 12 other cases where the U.S. government has demanded Apple help it hack into iPhones – February 23, 2016
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