Justice Department appeals pro-Apple encryption ruling

The U.S. Department of Justice is appealing last week’s court ruling that prevented the government from forcing Apple to unlock an iPhone, Reuters reports. The DOJ has submitted its arguments to a higher court after a magistrate judge in Brooklyn ruled the All Writs Act can’t justify asking Apple to help the government access an encrypted device. The new filing cites the ruling of a judge in California who found the All Writs Act an acceptable rationale for compelling Apple’s cooperation, pitting two lower courts against one another. While the cases are slightly different, the government’s use of the AWA to justify its position is the same, and Apple CEO Tim Cook said he is willing to take the California case all the way to the Supreme Court. The DOJ has at least a dozen more iPhones it wants cracked in a similar fashion, and FBI Director James Comey has publicly admitted that success in applying the AWA in any of these cases would be used as a precedent to justify similar legal requests moving forward.