BACKGROUND: Syed Rizwan Farook, an environmental health inspector, and wife, Tashfeen Malik, on December 2, 2015, killed 14 co-workers and wounded 17 others at the Inland Regional Center, a Social Services Center in San Bernardino, California that provided services for disabled individuals. Farook was carrying an iPhone 5c, which the FBI believes contains information that would assist them greatly in identifying accomplices, and other third parties who assisted in either planning and/or carrying out the attack, provided weapons, or who communicated with Farook about other future planned attacks. The FBI attempted during December 2015 to unlock Farook's iPhone in order to get access to information that the phone may contain. However, they were unsuccessful in unlocking the phone. Therefore they met with Apple and other tech leaders for assistance in unlocking the phone. The FBI requested of a Federal Judge in California, and received, an Order directing Apple to create software that would allow the FBI to bypass the security feature that prohibited the FBI from attempting no more than 10 times to break the passcode on the phone.
Apple defied the Court Order asserting that the Court's order essentially required it to create a "backdoor" that would undermine the privacy of iPhones around the world. Apple also asserted that it would be bad publicity for it and adversely affect its market share. Apple appealed to the Court of Appeals the the U.S. District Magistrate Judge's Order. The debate has become one of national security vs. personal privacy until such time as the U.S. Justice Department withdrew its request, and asked that its case against Apple be dismissed as an unidentified third party had provided assistance in allowing it to by-pass the phone's feature that prohibited no more than 10 attempts to unlock the phone's security. However, the debate is not over, and undoubtedly similar cases will be litigated in the future.
INSTRUCTIONS: For homework I, you are to do the following:
1. Write a more detailed introduction to the facts of this case, explaining to the best of your ability the facts that have been loosely outlined above. Please cite all of your sources.
2. As the semester progresses, you will read about "precedence", "jurisdictional issues", "procedural issues", different types of law (i.e., statutory law, case law, constitutional law, and other), and other legal concepts. Please explain to the best of your ability, applying what you have learned during the semester, as well as information you have researched, the legal argument that the U.S. Justice Department (FBI) relied on in arguing to the U.S. District Court, and on appeal, why the Court should order Apple to provide the by-pass feature to override the security on the phone. For each law that you cite, explain what it is and how the Justice Department used that law to advance its argument.
3. Please explain to the best of your ability, applying what you have learned during the semester, as well as additional information you have researched, the legal argument that Apple relied on in arguing to the U.S. District Court, and on appeal, why the Court should not order it to provide the by-pass feature to override the security on the phone.
For each law that you cite, explain what it is and how Apple used that law to advance its argument.
4. State which legal argument (that of the U.S. Justice Department or Apple) which you believe is more compelling and which should have prevailed had the Justice Department not been able to obtain the assistance of a third party in bypassing the security feature on the phone.
Support your conclusion by explaining the logic you relied upon.
5. Explain whether you believe the US Justice Department (FBI) vs. Apple case has implications for future similar cases, and if so in what manner do you believe future similar cases will be impacted by this case.
This assignment is due on August 7, 2016 at 11:30 p.m.
It is not necessary that you use any particular model formatting. However, your paper should be submitted in a WORD format, using no less than a 1 inch margin, top, bottom, left and right.
Further the paper should be double spaced, and you should use subheadings where appropriate.
Cite all sources. You decide whether you will use endnotes or footnotes. Please include your name and student id on your submission. You should plan to give your submission a title.
Please include page number on the bottom center of each page.