[swyman]

> The legal question "is not whether the government should be able to force Apple to help it unlock a specific device; it is instead whether the All Writs Act resolves that issue and many others like it to come," Orenstein wrote.

That's the whole issue, and also the best way I've been able to explain the magnitude of these decisions to people who haven't read as much about these cases. The news thinks the case is about encryption, but in the courts, it's about whether or not the government _already_ has the power to compel an uninterested 3rd-party to act against its will.

[rayiner]

The government has always had the power to compel an uninterested third party to act against its will. I can serve someone with a subpoena in a civil suit and they have to show up and answer my questions. Nobody wants to do this, but the government compels them to.

The issue isn't whether the government has the power to compel assistance with the judicial process. It's about what sorts of things the government can compel people to do.