I found that the FBI was arguing for the creation of a backdoor under the umbrella of the All Writs Act of 1789. The FBI referenced the act to have the California court system issue a writ to have Apple assist in the investigation, which later occurred. A writ, in legal terms, is a document from a court ordering someone to do something or not to do something, this was of course used to demand the creation of a back-door for the FBI. The specific passage that was argued in the court states “The Thirteenth section of the Judiciary Act of 1789 authorized the circuit courts to issue writs of prohibition to the district courts and the Supreme Court to issue such writs to the circuit courts” (Article III – All Writs Act of 1789). This seemed pretty compelling, the court had examined the FBI’s request, deemed it constitutional, and then issued a writ to Apple. However, no matter how compelling I do think that this argument is weak and so did Apple. The All Writs Act of 1789 was created over 225 years ago and is too far removed from this situation to provide any valid insight. This idea was brought up in Tim Cook’s response to the writ. The debate between the FBI and Apple has to be put into the context of 1789 for Apple’s rebuttal to make any sense. If in 1789 the theoretical FBI was to ask the court to issue a writ to a particular lock making company to create a master key that could …show more content…
I understand that Apple can refuse to comply, but can they legally do that? Can a writ be refused without punishment and then reissued? I would like to see how this plays out. The sources that I have examined only reaffirm my support of privacy rights. The debate between the FBI and Apple has national implication and needs to be solved properly, if the case is argued ignorantly it could set the precedent for numerous following