Judge Andrew Napolitano warned that if the Justice Department is successful in forcing Apple to break the encryption of the iPhone, the Chinese will have the ability to do it too “in less than a week.”
In an interview Tuesday on “Fox & Friends” with Anna Kooiman Napolitano said that once the encryption is broken “forget about it, nothing will be private, nothing will be sacred.”
Asked if Apple should be charged with treason if they do not help the FBI unlock the encryption to the iPhone used by the San Bernardino terrorists, Napolitano insisted, “I think it’s extraordinarily extreme. I mean, Apple’s behavior here is the opposite of treason, it’s patriotism. It’s refusing to permit the government to force it to do something against it’s will.”
“Look, if Apple had a key in a vault, and the FBI needed the key, they could subpoena the key and get it,” Napolitano said. “But the FBI wants Apple to create something that doesn’t yet exist. And this thing once created, once it’s on the internet, once it’s used can be used by all sorts of people to break into all kinds of people’s private security of their data.”
Explaining the practical argument, Napolitano said “a former high ranking NSA official told me very recently once this is out there, the Chinese will have it in less than a week. Not that the FBI will give it to them, but they’ll find a why to acquire it.”
The legal argument on the side of Apple’s refusal to assist the FBI is “that the government can’t force you to work for them. They can force you to tell them what you know. They can force you to give up documents that you have. But they can’t force you to create something at your expense, that doesn’t exist, which will destroy your business model,” Napolitano said.
“Well, when we have an attack on our homeland by Muslim extremists like with the San Bernardino attack out in California, it pulls on our heart strings,” Kooiman said. “But do you think this is a slippery slope, if the government forces Apple to do this could the government force other companies to do something that, you know, doesn’t have as large of a ramification?”
“Right now, we all keep all kinds of private information on the iPhones and mobile devices because we’re aware of the encryption that Apple uses to protect us and other companies use it as well. Once that paradigm is broken, forget about it, nothing will be private, nothing will be sacred,” Napolitano insisted.
“The people who want to cause us harm, who are very adept at using the internet, ISIS and those monsters are extremely adept at using the internet, they’re rooting for the FBI. They want this stuff exposed so that they can tap into it,” Napolitano speculated. “I don’t know that personally. I’m suggesting it because I’m aware of how adept they are at using the internet to harm people.”
“The courts are asking Apple to do this… will they have to do it, will they break into their own phone,” Kooiman asked.
“I think this will go all the way to the Supreme Court and I think Apple has the stronger argument,” Napolitano said. “There’s simply no authority for the courts to force Apple to work for the government.”
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