In May last year, a warrant was obtained and executed that forced everyone is a particular building in Lancaster, California to attempt to unlock an encrypted mobile phone with their fingerprint. But just because law officials put in this type of request, doesn’t mean to say they will always get granted it.
More recently a warrant was requested for a similar scenario, and the federal judge in Illinois outright denied it is saying there was not sufficient probable cause to make everyone in the whole premises give up their fingerprint. He argued that this went completely against the Fifth Amendment and was not to be allowed.
There seems to be a rising trend in these types of phone unlocking requests, and there is no set rule. Each case will need to be determined on its own merits, and the judge will decide from there whether to allow the warrant or not. As part of the order outlining the rise in these mass fingerprint warrants, it states, “The request is neither limited to a particular person nor a particular device.” The warrant isn’t particularly useful as it doesn’t specify what devices on the premises are to be searched if they are found. It simply says, “it is likely” Apple devices will be found at the residence.
So, as mentioned earlier, it’s apparent that each warrant request will be treated individually. If an individual shows signs of having a more significant connection to criminal conduct than usual, a warrant may be executed. There is no cut and dry solution for this. Andrew Crocker is a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and he recently advised in a Tweet, “I’m glad to see the Illinois applying extra scrutiny to this kind of request. Despite the government’s claims that this sort of warrant is routine, it raises a host of constitutional issues, as the court noted.”
“The opinion and order” that signed by United States Magistrate Judge M. David Weisman from the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.
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