Apple asserts that the government has failed to substantiate a continued need for its help in accessing a locked iPhone used in a New York drug case.
The technology giant made the argument in a brief filed in the New York federal court on Friday, a week after the Department of Justice said it would appeal a US magistrate's ruling that he cannot force the company to assist authorities, reported Reuters.
Apple argued that the government had not said if it had used the secret method from the San Berdardino case on the iPhone in the instant Brooklyn, New York drug investigation, nor if it had consulted with the unnamed third party or anyone else about it.
The government filed its appeal to a higher level to Judge Margo Brodie after it vacated its request for Apple to help it access the iPhone 5C of Rizwan Farook, one of two shooters in the San Bernardino massacre which left at least 14 people dead and 22 injured, saying a third party has successfully cracked it.
Apple said the government "has utterly failed to satisfy its burden to demonstrate that Apple's assistance in this case is necessary" as it reiterated many of its previous arguments in the case.
The Justice Department, in a statement said that Apple has helped the government access iPhone on at least 70 occasions before the Brooklyn case came to light. The department said Apple has admitted that it would take them only a few hours to open this kind of phone because they already have the method to do so.
Prosecutors are appealing a Feb. 29 ruling by U.S. Magistrate Judge James Orenstein who said he did not have the authority to order Apple to disable the security of an iPhone seized in a drug investigation. The government called the judge's ruling as "unprecedented limitation" on judicial authority, reported Phys.org.
Apple's objection to the government's request has rekindled the national debate over digital privacy rights and national security. Apple had previously assailed the department's move, saying U.S. law enforcement authorities were seeking "dangerous power" through the courts and trampling on the company's constitutional rights.
The Brooklyn case involves a government request that is less onerous for Apple and its phone technology than the one previously asked in the San Bernardino episode. They are requesting for an extraction technique that works on an older iPhone operating system and has been used before to assist investigators, reported U.S. News.
The California and New York cases are both premised on the government's interpretation of the centuries-old All Writs Act, presenting another challenge for federal courts. They now have to come up with a ruling on how a law that is used to help investigate crimes can be impemented without encroaching on people's privacy and security of personal data in the digital age.
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