Wow. In Brooklyn, Judge Orenstein has ruled against DOJ’s motion to compel Apple to assist them. In that case, like the San Bernardino case, the government also tried to use All Writes to compel assistance, although the facts of the cases are somewhat different.
Katie Benner reports:
A federal judge denied the United States government’s request to open an Apple iPhone in a drug case in New York, a move that gives Apple’s pro-privacy stance a boost and that has implications for other cases where federal investigators are trying to get data from tech companies.
Magistrate Judge James Orenstein in New York’s Eastern District said in a ruling on Monday that the United States government couldn’t use a law called the All Writs Act to force Apple to hack into an iPhone that was seized in connection with a drug case. The government overstepped what the All Writs Act was intended for, the judge wrote.
Read more on the NY Times.
Here’s the memorandum and order.