In a new statement, Apple continues to deny assistance to the Justice Department in connection with the case of an iPhone 5s involved in drug trafficking. Once again, Apple claims that the government has clearly failed to use all possible avenues to access the required data, and the company has asked the judge involved to dismiss the government's lawsuit against Apple.
"The government has completely failed to present everything necessary to enforce the search warrant, including that it exhausted all avenues for the recovery of the information it seeks," argued Apple in the new presentation to District Judge Margo Brodie. "Before the government requires Apple to do its enforcement work, the government must provide evidence that it has conducted an extensive search and is still unable to obtain the data it needs without help from Apple."
Apple even referenced the San Bernardino case, in which the FBI finally managed to unlock the iPhone phone in question through the use and help of so-called "pro hackers". Apple's argument is that the government might in fact be able to access the iPhone in the case of New York without their help, which would be fair. That said, the method used to access the San Bernardino iPhone 5c has been confirmed not to be compatible with later terminals, such as the iPhone 5s, 6 or 6s.
At the same time, a bill could eliminate Apple's election on issues like this for years to come if a couple of US senators put it in their way. Despite being labeled "absurd" and "technologically ignorant," the proposed legislation has been published as a draft, and it would force companies like Apple to obey the judges' orders to decrypt the required data in cases where one of their devices is involved.