Judge sides with Apple in drug probe iPhone case

How would you feel if the police showed up at your house with a court order, and told you you had to take the week off work, and break into your neighbor's house to search for something they thought was illegal in there?

Oh, and wouldn't pay you for your effort. And threatened to put you in jail if you didn't do what they ordered?

All because they know you were the person who had installed the locks on your neighbor's house. And because they were too lazy or incompetent to figure out how to unlock the house themselves?

This is what they're asking Apple to do.

We have a name for this: slavery and tyranny. Slavery is forced labor without compensation. Tyranny is forced compliance by government without due process. Apple isn't getting due process, because they've done nothing wrong.

Finally, some common sense on this issue. It's well understood that if someone has evidence in a locked safe, the court can order that the key be turned over. What they can't do (or won't do) is order the locksmith at the shop who sold the safe to manufacture a special tool that may or may not be successful at allowing someone to pick the lock. How would they even know if Apple has complied with the order or is in contempt? Apple could just claim that they did their best but failed. Would the FBI be able to show evidence that they are lying? It's far too imprecise and speculative for any court to get involved with.

U.S. Magistrate Judge James Orenstein in New York said in a 50-page opinion that law enforcement lacked the authority to compel Apple to comply.

Case Law in the making.

Why bother even asking Apple ? send it to the n.s.a & be done with it.this is National Security , as for the N.Y. ruling the Justices are uuber liberal & in line with whatever Mr. Coumo may like- these cases are on totally different levels- apples & oranges.

Common sense prevails.

CrazyJoe: Oh, and wouldn't pay you for your effort. And threatened to put you in jail if you didn't do what they ordered? All because they know you were the person who had installed the locks on your neighbor's house. And because they were too lazy or incompetent to figure out how to unlock the house themselves?

You do realize that the FBI uses threats to get their way? It is widely known that they have used blackmail to set someone up to get them to act as informants. The informants then collect information and even entrap the suspect into committing a crime. By entrap, I mean convince someone who wasn't going to commit a crime to commit a crime. This has happened with NASA employees.

The FBI and Hoover perverted "Truth and Justice" into just "Justice" (at any cost and justice depending on who was in power).

Conflicting rulings on the same points of law would increase the chances of the US Supreme Court being called upon to make the final call.

I hope so.

Oral arguments in the San Bernardino case are to be made in federal court in Southern California on March 22. The Apple executive said that while the magistrate judge in California is free to rule differently, the iPhone maker hoped that she would be persuaded by Ornstein’s “thoughtful and masterful” reasoning in his decision.

Of course they were going to rule in Apple's favor, this was held in the bluest of States, so I'm not surprised at all by this decision. I hope the feds will take it to the Supreme Court and let them rule on it, the ruling will probably very different from what Apple wants.