Apple to argue Congress should settle phone battle

Apple will argue in legal filings this week that Congress should decide whether the tech giant should comply with the FBI and unlock an encrypted iPhone, The Associated Press reported.

Apple will also insist that the government is improperly using the 1789 All Writs Act to compel the company to help law enforcement bypass security features on the iPhone.

{mosads}”The government is really seeking to push the courts to do what they haven’t been able to persuade Congress to do,” Theodore Boutrous Jr., one of Apple’s lead attorneys, told the AP. “That’s to give it more broad, sweeping authority to help the Department of Justice hack into devices, to have a back door into devices, and the law simply does not provide that authority.”

Apple last week defied a court order directing the firm to help authorities unlock an iPhone used by one of the perpetrators of the San Bernardino, Calif., terrorist attack, which left 14 people dead.

The FBI wants Apple to create software that would disable a failsafe feature that wipes the iPhone’s memory after an incorrect password has been entered 10 times in a row.

Apple — backed up by many tech industry groups and privacy advocates — has characterized such software as a dangerous “backdoor” that could be exploited by hackers to crack all iPhones.

But the FBI insists its request is “quite narrow” and would not create a permanent vulnerability into Apple products.

Numerous legal experts expect Apple to argue that the First Amendment shields the company from being forced to create this software, Bloomberg reported.

Apple will likely maintain that the software should be protected as speech. Under the First Amendment, the government can’t compel speech, several attorneys told Bloomberg.

If Apple is successful in kicking its fight back to Congress, it’s unclear whether lawmakers could actually move on any legislation.

The tech giant supports a bill, set for introduction soon, that would establish a national commission to study how law enforcement can access secure data without endangering people’s privacy.

But Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) — the Intelligence committee’s leaders — are also working on a bill that could force companies to unlock phones under court order. 

“Sending complicated things to Congress is often not the surest way to get a quick answer,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Monday when asked about letting Congress decide. “In fact, even asking some of the most basic questions of Congress sometimes does not ensure a quick answer.”

“But, look, there’s also a responsibility that Congress has here to weigh in and to help the American people protect themselves from cyber threats,” Earnest added.