U.S. officials said on Thursday that they are hopeful they will be able to unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters without help from Apple Inc, but said the national debate over privacy and encryption must still be resolved.
I still think that if the government thought it could have won the case, it wouldn’t have vacated the court date. Either way the judge rules, it will set a precedent. It seems to me the government wasn’t confident enough to move forward.
I’m surprised that Apple didn’t resist this more, but I guess there are no guarantees either way. Seems since Apple was willing to go to the SCOTUS, they would have pushed to start the process now.
Jim: Your take is spot on. This was about FBI and precedent. They had no case and knew they wouldn’t win. Better to run away and fight another day.
I don’t
believe that they could protest this.