Apple NY drug case win does not affect San Bernardino battle, says White House

A ruling by a federal judge that the U.S. government cannot force Apple Inc to unlock an iPhone in a New York drug case does not affect the U.S. government’s legal action to force Apple to grant access to a phone used by one of the San Bernardino, California, shooters, the White House said on Tuesday.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest made the remark in a news briefing when asked about Monday’s ruling by a U.S. magistrate judge in Brooklyn.

While Apple already had its hands full dealing with the FBI, the New York drug case seems to have added more fuel to the fire, with a top Manhattan District Attorney (DA), Cyrus Vance stating that Apple’s encryption policies “cripples even the most basic steps of a criminal investigation,”.

The DA also mentioned that there were plenty of Apple devices lying in his office some of which preventing the law from exonerating innocent people suspected of crimes.

(Also Read:  Apple vs FBI: The battle for encryption heats up )

At the same time U.S. Magistrate Judge James Orenstein in Brooklyn ruled that he did not have the legal authority to order Apple to disable the security of an iPhone that was seized during a drug investigation. Indeed this was a big win for Apple in the New York drug case. But as the above news points out, none of this affects the San Bernardino shooting case, a bigger encryption battle that now also seems to involve Congress.

In what appears to be a second face-off between Apple and the FBI in front of the Congressional panel, both organisations are now seeking the implementation of laws on new encryption technologies.

With inputs from Reuters