All Writs Act

Outcome of FBI fight with Apple will affect your privacy

Author(s):

Elizabeth Joh

Publication Date:

March 4, 2016

Publication Type:

Other Writing

The legal dispute between the FBI and Apple over a locked iPhone is clouded in technical details that are hard for many to understand, an unclear area of law, and a terrible tragedy in San Bernardino that provokes unease and fear. Read more about Outcome of FBI fight with Apple will affect your privacy

Apple v the FBI: why the 1789 All Writs Act is the wrong tool

Author(s):

Neil Richards

Woodrow Hartzog

Publication Date:

February 24, 2016

Publication Type:

Other Writing

Apple’s celebrated fight with the FBI over the security of its encrypted iPhones has shone the spotlight on an old and obscure federal law from 1789 known as the All Writs Act (AWA).

The AWA is a short little statute, giving federal courts the power to “issue all writs necessary or appropriate in aid of their respective jurisdictions and agreeable to the usages and principles of law.” Read more about Apple v the FBI: why the 1789 All Writs Act is the wrong tool

Who Sets the Rules of the Privacy and Security Game?

Author(s):

Jennifer Granick

Publication Date:

February 22, 2016

Publication Type:

Other Writing

Last week’s big cybersecurity news was that the FBI obtained a court order to force Apple to develop new software that would bypass several iPhone security features so the FBI can attempt to unlock the work phone of one of the San Bernardino shooters. Apple plans to challenge that order. (Full disclosure: I am planning on writing a technologists’ amicus brief on Apple’s side in that challenge.) Read more about Who Sets the Rules of the Privacy and Security Game?

A Quick Update: Apple, Privacy, and the All Writs Act of 1789

Author(s):

Jennifer Granick

Riana Pfefferkorn

Publication Date:

October 30, 2015

Publication Type:

Other Writing

Here’s the latest in the encryption case we’ve been writing about in which the Justice Department is asking Magistrate Judge James Orenstein to order Apple to unlock a criminal defendant’s passcode-protected iPhone. The government seized and has authority to search the phone pursuant to a search warrant. Read more about A Quick Update: Apple, Privacy, and the All Writs Act of 1789

The All Writs Act, Software Licenses, and Why Judges Should Ask More Questions

Author(s):

Jennifer Granick

Riana Pfefferkorn

Publication Date:

October 26, 2015

Publication Type:

Other Writing

Pending before federal magistrate judge James Orenstein is the government’s request for an order obligating Apple, Inc. to unlock an iPhone and thereby assist prosecutors in decrypting data the government has seized and is authorized to search pursuant to a warrant. Read more about The All Writs Act, Software Licenses, and Why Judges Should Ask More Questions

Update on Apple’s Compelled-Decryption Case

Author(s):

Jennifer Granick

Riana Pfefferkorn

Publication Date:

October 20, 2015

Publication Type:

Other Writing

Last week, we wrote about an order from a federal magistrate judge in New York that questioned the government’s ability, under an ancient federal law called the All Writs Act, to compel Apple to decrypt a locked device which the government had seized and is authorized to search pursuant to a warrant. Read more about Update on Apple’s Compelled-Decryption Case