Apple says U.S. 'Founders would be appalled' by DOJ order
Apple says U.S. 'Founders would be appalled' by DOJ order
Kevin Johnson and Elizabeth Weise, USATODAY 8:08 p.m. EDT
March 15, 2016
SAN FRANCISCO — Apple Inc. charged Tuesday that a court
order forcing the tech giant to assist the federal government in unlocking the
iPhone of San Bernardino terrorist Syed Farook was based on non-existent
authority asserted by the Justice Department.
"According to the government, short of kidnapping or
breaking an express law, the courts can order private parties to do virtually
anything the Justice Department and FBI can dream up,'' Apple lawyers argued in
new court documents. "The Founders would be appalled.''
The company rejected the government's previous
contention, characterizing the court order as "modest'' and relating to a
"single iPhone.''
"Instead, this case hinges on a contentious policy
issue about how society should weigh what law enforcement officials want
against the widespread repercussions and serious risk their demands would
create,'' Apple lawyers argued.
With each new filing in advance of a scheduled March 22
court hearing on the matter, the rhetoric has dramatically escalated while the
substance of the dispute has largely never changed: Apple claims that the
court's order would represent an unprecedented breach of customer privacy,
while the government counters that its request is narrow in scope and that
national security interests trump whatever privacy claims can be asserted
involving access to Farook's phone.
"This case arises in a difficult context after a
terrible tragedy,'' Apple contends. "But it is in just such highly-charged
and emotional cases that the courts must zealously guard civil liberties and
the rule of law and reject government over-reaching.''
Apple's new court filing comes less than a week after the
Justice Department claimed that Apple had "deliberately raised
technological barriers'' between a warrant and the iPhone that authorities
believe may contain additional evidence in the December mass shooting that left
14 dead.
"We look forward to responding to Apple's arguments
before the court on March 22,'' Justice spokeswoman Emily Pierce said Tuesday.
"As we have said in our filings, the Constitution and the three branches
of the federal government should be entrusted to strike the balance between
each citizen's right to privacy and all citizens' right to safety and justice.
The Constitution and the laws of the United States do not vest that power in a
single corporation.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook has called the request akin to
creating a "backdoor" into the iPhone, and the company's lawyers
claimed Tuesday in court documents that the government's requested order was
"neither grounded in the common law nor authorized by statute.''
"The government, nevertheless, contends that because
this court issued a valid search warrant (to review contents of the seized
iPhone), it can order innocent third parties to provide any service the
government deems necessary or appropriate to accomplish the search,'' the
company contended Tuesday.
The high-stakes dispute between Apple and the government
was set in motion a month ago when a federal magistrate in California ordered
the company to assist the FBI in gaining access to Farook's seized phone.
FBI Director James Comey has said that all options
available to the government, short of seeking the company's help, have been
unsuccessful in devising a way past the phone's locking function.
Speaking to Bloomberg News ahead of the filing, Apple
counsel Ted Boutrous said Apple's response would "walk through the facts
in the law and show why the government is asking for something that no federal
court has ever granted," he said.
Overall the tech world has come down strongly in Apple’s
camp. Among people who work in the IT and security industries, 63% support
Apple and do not believe that it should comply with the FBI by unlocking the
phone, according to a survey conducted bythe security firm AlienVault.
However, a survey by the Pew Research Center last month
found that 51% of Americans say Apple should be forced to unlock the phone
while 38% said it should not.
Johnson reporting from Washington DC, Weise from San
Francisco.
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