[Cementjungle]

Apple refused to unlock the iPhone 5c because it had no duty to do so and because the All Writs court order was expanding the governments power FAR BEYOND what the power of the courts had been allowed to go. It was not a search warrant at all (Apple had complied with all proper search warrants presented and provided every bit of evidence they had in their possession) but rather an order to essentially sabotage their own business model. . . and to do work that would create a backdoor into their own proprietary operating system and hand it over to the Government for its use. There is NOTHING in the law that allows the government or courts to compel such a thing. On fact a 1995 Federal Law absolutely PROHIBITED IT. That is why Apple refused.

I've heard that line from Apple, but it doesn't pass the smell test with me. They could have unlocked that one phone for the Feds in order to help catch the terrorist's co-conspirators... and they could have done it without a court order. That would have been the patriotic thing to do given the extreme circumstances.

So... the Feds finally got someone else to unlock it for them.

[Swordmaker]

I've heard that line from Apple, but it doesn't pass the smell test with me. They could have unlocked that one phone for the Feds in order to help catch the terrorist's co-conspirators... and they could have done it without a court order. That would have been the patriotic thing to do given the extreme circumstances.
So... the Feds finally got someone else to unlock it for them.

How? Apple did not have the passcode to the iPhone, the FBI changed the AppleID, and the court order specifically ordered Apple to develop a new version of iOS without the safeguards that would unlock that model of iPhones and hand it over to the government! There was NOTHING IN THE LAW THAT GAVE THAT JUDGE THE POWER TO ORDER THAT! It would have turned two hundred years of case law and jurisprudence on its head. The appellate courts agreed in two instances and sided with Apple. The 1995 law passed by Congress LIMITED the demands that law enforcement could make on telecommunications manufacturers and providing a backdoor to a telecommunications device or a means to defeat built in encryption was SPECIFICALLY forbidden to law enforcement and the courts!

Apple was following the law but the FBI and the magistrate law judge were NOT! The rule of law trumps their flouting of it attempt to bully Apple in the court of public opinion.