Apple, in new Motion, Asks Court To Throw Out Case To Unlock Encrypted iPhone

Apple is asking a federal court to throw out the Department of Justice and FBI motion to compel the company to unlock an iPhone connected with the Dec. 2, 2015, San Bernardino, California, terrorist attack (see 1602220026). In Thursday's 36-page motion to U.S. District Court in Riverside, California, lawyers for Apple wrote that the case goes beyond "one isolated iPhone." They said it's about the government seeking a "dangerous power" from courts, one that hasn't been granted by Congress: "the ability to force companies like Apple to undermine the basic security and privacy interests of hundreds of millions of individuals around the globe." Apple also said that no court has ever authorized what the government now wants. While the government said it's only seeking unlocking for this one device, Apple said the government knows that's not true and "has filed multiple other applications for similar orders." It said that state and local officials have "publicly declared their intent to use the proposed operating system to open hundreds of other seized devices -- in cases having nothing to do with terrorism." The company added that "once the floodgates open, they cannot be closed, and the device security that Apple has worked so tirelessly to achieve will be unwound without so much as a congressional vote." U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym, who ordered Apple to help the FBI get into the locked device, has set a March 22 hearing.