With everything that has started with the San Bernardino case, it seems that the FBI is mainly battling Apple, and not terrorism. After blatantly denying the court order, Apple is fiercely fighting against the FBI to make sure that they can steer clear of the court order request. Recently, the House had also created an opportunity to both the companies to clear out the whole debate face to face.
On one side was the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook. According to the letter, he had refused to comply with the FBI order since the request was very disturbing and would result in the FBI gaining too much power over the citizens of the country. Thus, the CEO refused on behalf of the company. On the other hand, the Apple attorneys had shown a similar type of case happening in New York, where the judge had ruled in favor of Apple’s decision not to provide the government with backdoors to the Apple security system.
On the other hand, the Director of the FBI, James Comey had other plans. He is fighting to make sure Apple complies with their order. The main weapon in the hands of Comey is the All Writs Act. According to the Act, the companies are requested to help the government in any way possible to solve a crime. In many previous cases, the FBI has been able to steer the court to their favors using the All Writs Act. Similarly in this case, they are looking to do the same.
On a hearing with the Congress, Comey was bombarded with many questions regarding the order they had placed towards Apple. The members of the Congress, who are responsible for clearing the dispute between the two bodies, have been harsh against the FBI. They had to see that the FBI had done everything possible by the investigating body before turning to the courts. Moreover, a lot of questions were made to the FBI director regarding the technical matters of the whole case. The FBI chief was actually unable to give any fruitful convincing answers to any of the questions.
