Justice Department asks judge to revisit NY iPhone case

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Technology | Mon Mar 7, 2016 8:15pm EST

Justice Department asks judge to revisit NY iPhone case

WASHINGTON | BY JULIA EDWARDS

The U.S. Justice Department on Monday sought to overturn a ruling which protects Apple from unlocking an iPhone in a New York drug case.

A magistrate judge in Brooklyn last week ruled that the Justice Department could not compel the tech giant to unlock the phone. The government on Monday resubmitted its arguments to a higher judge overseeing the matter.

Prosecutors are relying on the same law in its fight against Apple in a California court, where a judge ordered Apple to unlock an encrypted phone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters. The clash has intensified a long-running debate over how much law enforcement and intelligence officials should be able to monitor digital communications.

In its filing on Monday, the Justice Department cited the California decision as evidence that the All Writs Act has been used to compel Apple to unlock the phones. Additionally, the government argued that the phone at issue in New York runs an older operating system which Apple has agreed to crack several times in previous cases.

U.S. Magistrate Judge James Orenstein in Brooklyn ruled last week that he did not have the legal authority under the All Writs Act to order Apple to hand over the data from the phone.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-encryption-idUSKCN0W92HX

[NHprogressive]

1. I see the conflict here but side with Apple

As a PC diehard, this is the first time I have typed those words..

What is proposed here is not even a slippery slope, it is a cliff. The way that technology is now, a smartphone has more private information than a house did a hundred (or fifty etc) years ago, and to create a situation where the government can demand forced access to any phone any time for an unspecified set of reasons is inconsistent with American values.