Re:Judge Grants Search Warrant Forcing Woman to Unlock iPhon...
by DannyBee on Monday May 02, 2016 @04:46PM
(#11615446)
Your adage is based on random supreme court dicta in Hubbell and Doe, and you know courts have gone either way. ;)
So let's just both agree we are suggesting the world is a little more black and white than it is.
I would not try to predict what would happen square-on today, given the splits involved.
It just so happens that, today, the government can compel you to perform a physical gesture that, by proxy, happens to be used as a key on a device that normally accepts a combination. If it's been 48 hours since your finger was last applied to the Touch ID sensor on an iPhone, that "key" doesn't work any more. So, until the fingerprint is accepted by the courts as a "combination" (effectively, that's how the "common man" sees it, and which the courts treat as testimony-by-proxy) rather than a physical gesture (not testimony at all, and currently easily compelled), the only defense one has (if using Touch ID) is to stall for 48 hours.