""In the court of public opinion, a dead terrorist whose phone might have connections to more terrorists is pretty attractive from the standpoint of prosecution, but the legal question is not made easier because of that," Ryan Calo, an assistant law professor at the University of Washington in Seattle and an expert on privacy law, said in a phone interview.
No court has ruled on whether a tech company could be forced to find a way around its own security features, Calo said.
"What is being asked to be done here on the scale of things is pretty invasive," Calo said.
"They are asking for a lot, not a little.""