Apple case: judge rejects FBI request for access to drug dealer's iPhone

Judge James Orenstein says government's position has implications that are 'so far reaching as to produce impermissibly absurd results'

A federal judge on Monday rejected an FBI request to order Apple to open the iPhone of a drug dealer in a major setback to the US government's increasingly heated efforts to force the company to help unlock an iPhone used by a San Bernardino terrorist.

The ruling late on Monday by magistrate judge James Orenstein rejected the US Justice Department's attempt to gain access to the iPhone of accused crystal meth dealer Jun Feng, whose case is ongoing, though Feng has pleaded guilty. He will be sentenced in April.