Los Angeles Judge Orders Defendant to Unlock iPhone with Fingerprint

The Apple encryption battles continues! Despite Apple coming up on top when the FBI and the DoJ’s petition to unlock the infamous Bernardino iPhone was withdrawn, a new brouhaha has commenced. A court order has been filed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Alicia Rosenberg mandating that Los Angeles defendant, Paytsar Bkjchadzhyan, unlock her iPhone by placing her finger on the Touch ID’s home button.

The L.A. case is certainly setting a huge precedent. Recently, the U.S Supreme Court upheld a controversial ruling stating that law enforcement with a valid search warrant can compel a person in custody to produce their fingerprint. It’s being deemed physical evidence even without a judge’s order. Human rights and amendment lawyers have claimed that such a ruling disregards the fifth-amendment and the right against self-incrimination.

Nowadays, everything about a person's information can be confined within a smartphone, much of which may be irrelevant to the case. As the ruling stands, legal experts are divided with equally contrasting validated opinions. One thing is clear, defendants in some states will not be afforded the same equal protection with biometric data such as fingerprint scans or, perhaps, even iris scans in comparison to passcode information.

It appears that the logic behind the ruling is based on the state of locality and physical data as the determining factor. One can only imagine what would happen if someone invented a brain scan that can extract a passcode from a person’s memory. Would that be considered the new slippery slope? I’m pretty sure someone, somewhere, is busy trying to solve that 1984 question.  

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