[PeterisP]

The check there is the judge and jury, which could be convinced by the defense that this is not their hard drive - unlike the case of Francis Rawls, where they haven't even attempted to contest that he knows the password. They haven't claimed that they are unable to perform the action, they're simply refusing to do it (and unsuccessfully contesting that they don't have to do this), so that's contempt.

It's kind of counterproductive to assume a singular agent "the state" in this context - all legal checks and balances essentially rely on multiple, separate, competing agents of the state controlling each other, separation of powers and all that. If police and all the judges are both on the same corrupt side then there's nothing stopping them from convicting you for murder of Abraham Lincoln and locking you up indefinitely for that, but we're working off of the assumption that this is not the case.