Deep Dive: Why Forcing Apple to Write and Sign Code Violates the First Amendment by Andrew Crocker and Jamie Williams.
From the post:
EFF filed an amicus brief today in support of Apple’s fight against a court order compelling the company to create specific software to enable the government to break into an iPhone. The brief is written on behalf of 46 prominent technologists, security researchers, and cryptographers who develop and rely on secure technologies and services that are central to modern life. It explains that the court’s unprecedented order would violate Apple’s First Amendment rights. That’s because the right to free speech prohibits the government from compelling unwilling speakers to speak, and the act of writing and, importantly, signing computer code is a form of protected speech. So by forcing Apple to write and sign an update to undermine the security of its iOS software, the court is also compelling Apple to speak—in violation of the First Amendment. (emphasis in original)
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Despite my mentioning A Readers’ Guide to the Apple All Writs Act Cases earlier today, I wanted to call the EFF amicus brief out separately.
Its strong defense of Apple solely on First Amendment grounds merits special mention.
Enabling the government to compel speech, for any reason, should be resisted in courts, in the streets and in refusing to speak.
Or as one of my least favorite people in history once put it:
(Not one step back)
Yes, it is really that important.