Apple scores major win in FBI iPhone standoff

01 Mar 2016
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Apple has been handed a major victory in its ongoing standoff with the FBI after a New York judge rejected a US government request that would have forced Apple to extract data from a locked iPhone.

The case, which is separate but related to the FBI's request that Apple unlock the iPhone of the San Bernardino terrorist, relates to the locked iPhone of a New York drug dealer. "It would be absurd to posit that the authority the government sought was anything other than obnoxious to the law," said judge James Orenstein. The drug dealer, Jun Feng, has already pleaded guilty to the charges and will be sentenced in April. Despite the US government request, Apple has refused to create a way for authorities to access the information on his iPhone.

Using the All Writs Act -- a 227-year-old law that is also being used by the FBI in the San Bernardino case -- Apple had been asked to help the investigation into Feng's case. However, the company refused to do so.

In the ruling Orenstein said: "The implications of the government's position are so far-reaching -- both in terms of what it would allow today and what it implies about Congressional intent in 1789 -- as to produce impermissibly absurd results".

The judgement may prove to be significant as the public and legal argument between Apple and the FBI intensifies. Later today both the FBI and Apple are due to testify at a congressional hearing.

Apple boss Tim Cook, who has previously said it would be "dangerous" to comply with the FBI's demands, will not represent his company at the hearing. Instead, Apple general counsel and senior vice president of legal and global security Bruce Sewell will speak for Apple.

Sewell will be faced by the FBI's director James Comey and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Junior. Comey has also spoken publicly about the case, arguing that the FBI wants Apple to create a new operating system to access one, not all, iPhones.