[frandroid]

They literally have no idea what's on the phone; they're speculating that there might be something useful. A search warrant for searching the possessions of someone who committed a terror act is not out of the ordinary. But I agree with your conclusion.

[rdpickard]

Right, that makes sense. I don't have the link handy but the aclu post from a few days ago about a method to brute force the phone by backing up and restoring disk images after a wipe seemed reasonable to me. I also think that the fact that the phone wasn't farook's property but San bernardino government's is a strong argument that there is no expectation of privacy on that particular phone.

It's probable cause for the warrant against (??) Apple that I haven't wrapped my head around. Since apple has no known or suspected connection with the crime itself.

Who wants to start a key escrow company :)

[paulryanrogers]

Don't they have backups which could provide some probability the phones may contain relevant evidence?