After more than a week of warring words, Apple on Thursday officially defied a court order that it help the FBI unlock a mass shooter’s iPhone.
The gadget giant filed a motion to vacate the order because it violates its constitutional rights and illegally forces it into a burdensome task of creating dangerous tools for the government.
The move is Apple’s first legal stance against a court mandate that Apple has been battling in the realm of public opinion since last week. Soon after a federal magistrate judge ordered Apple to help the FBI bypass security blockers on an iPhone used by one of the shooters in December’s deadly San Bernardino terrorist attack, CEO Tim Cook released a letter to customers laying out the dangers of the order and explaining why Apple would refuse.
In the filing and on a conference call with reporters, Apple said the order would require it to create a “GovtOS” version of the iOS software that runs devices like iPhones, and that it would force it to set up an FBI forensics lab that has the potential to be used on hundreds of other phones now held by law enforcement.
That conflicts with the company’s Constitutional rights, it said in the motion.
Apple argued that by making Apple write computer code that conflicts with its principles, the U.S. is forcing it to express the government’s point of view on security and privacy rather than its own, violating its First Amendment right to free speech. It likened the process of writing computer code to other forms of writing, even comparing it to poetry.
It also argued that the Fifth Amendment protects it from being deprived of liberty, which Apple says the order would do by conscripting the company “to do the government’s bidding” and develop software undermining the security features of its own products.
A senior Apple official called that unprecedented, saying never before has a company been conscripted by the U.S. to create something that does not exist — in this case, new software it refers to as GovtOS.
The company also took aim at the Justice Department for inappropriately wielding a centuries-old law to win a court order for what it failed to achieve with lawmakers. Called the All Writs Act, the 1789 law doesn’t give courts the authority “to change the substantive law, resolve policy disputes, or exercise new powers that Congress has not afforded them,” it said in the filing.
The Apple official noted that the Obama Administration originally approached Congress about the issue and voluntary abandoned the effort. By working through the courts instead, the U.S. government was “hijacking an important national debate,” the company said in a statement explaining the motion.
Who's Who in the Apple Vs. FBI Feud (Photos)
Tim Cook
Apple's CEO sparked headlines by refusing to help the FBI unlock an iPhone linked to a deadly mass shooting, shining a spotlight on a long-simmering tension between protecting either digital privacy or public safety from attacks
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Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik
The couple killed 14 people in December's mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif. Using a warrant to searching a car linked to the husband, Farook, law enforcement discovered a passcode-protected iPhone. They want to bypass security blockers to peek into the phone's data for clues about associates or possible future attacks.
U.S. Government
James Comey
The FBI's director defended the agency's request that Apple help crack the shooter's iPhone, saying investigators wouldn't be able to look survivors in their eyes if the FBI didn't pursue the lead.
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Eileen M. Decker
The U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, Decker is the top Justice Department official fighting on behalf of the FBI in court. Decker said the court's order would help investigators uncover the motives behind the attack. “We have made a solemn commitment to the victims and their families that we will leave no stone unturned," she said.
Department of Justice
Donald Trump
The Republican presidental candidate seized on the standoff pitting Apple against national security interests, calling for a boycott of the company until it helps unlock the phone.
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Edward Snowden
The former intelligence contractor, who leaked documents in 2013 that exposed warrantless government surveillance, called the face-off "the most important tech case in a decade" and criticized the FBI for creating a world where Apple protects citizens' rights, rather than the other way around.
Praxis Films
Sundar Pichai
Google's CEO, who is instrumental in the world's other major smartphone operating system besides Apple's, was the first major figure in Silicon Valley to express support for Cook. He said requiring companies to enable hacking of customer devices and data "could be a troubling precedent."
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Mark Zuckerberg
The CEO of Facebook, the world's biggest social network, said his company was “sympathetic” to Apple. “We believe in encryption,” he said.
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John McAfee
The anti-virus software businessman, who is known for his own tangles with law enforcement, said he and his team of hackers would break into Farook's iPhone for the FBI at no charge, to eliminate the need for Apple to develop another way in. "I would eat my shoe... if we could not break the encryption on the San Bernardino phone," he said.
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Apple and the U.S. government are facing off over a killer terrorist’s locked iPhone. Here are the main figures in the case
Tim Cook
Apple's CEO sparked headlines by refusing to help the FBI unlock an iPhone linked to a deadly mass shooting, shining a spotlight on a long-simmering tension between protecting either digital privacy or public safety from attacks