Apple scores a win against the All Writs Act in New York case
Apple has scored a point in one of its legal battles over iPhone security. It isn't in the San Bernardino case that has caught national attention in recent weeks, though. Rather, the company has been assisting the government in an investigation of the iPhone of Jun Feng, a man who has plead guilty to drug dealing. The investigators in Feng's case had argued that the All Writs Act (AWA) of 1789 allows them to compel Apple to bypass the passcode security on the defendant's iPhone. On Monday, magistrate judge James Orenstein ruled on Monday in the US District Court of the Eastern District of New York that the AWA does not give the government the power that it seeks.
Orenstein looks to a federal law called the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act , or CALEA, for guidance in this case. The judge notes the All Writs Act is understood to have a "gap-filling" function, and Apple ...