Scholarship@WashULaw
The iPhone Case and the Future of Civil Liberties
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2016
Publication Title
Boston Review
Abstract
It is not often that a legal battle over smartphone firmware captures the national imagination, but such is the case as the FBI tries to access the data contained on suspected San Bernadino shooter Syed Farook’s iPhone. The feds want Apple to help it break into the phone, under the authority of an obscure 1789 law called the All Writs Act. Thus an ancient statute meets an icon of the digital age. This odd pairing is strangely appropriate, as the Apple case, and others like it, will help to determine whether our hard-fought gains in civil liberties will survive today’s technology.
Keywords
Privacy, Mobile Phones, Tracking Technology, Surveillance, Civil Liberties, Constitutional Law
Publication Citation
Neil M. Richards, The iPhone Case and the Future of Civil Liberties, Boston Review (Feb. 25, 2016), https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/neil-richards-apple-iphone-privacy/
Repository Citation
Richards, Neil M., "The iPhone Case and the Future of Civil Liberties" (2016). Scholarship@WashULaw. 591.
https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_scholarship/591