“But, Adams further claimed, he had forgotten the password he had just set, and thus was unable to provide the FBI with a password that would unlock the phone.”
You know, the same thing happens to me every time the FBI takes my phones.
Its a mess, but largely, courts cannot compel you to give up your phone password, because of the 5th amendment. They can force you to unlock a phone secured with biometrics, as that isn’t compelled speech.
Sort of, but also it hasn’t gone to the SCOTUS yet. Plus:
There is a difference between communicating a passcode to police and physically providing an unlocked phone to police, the court said. Though these two acts “may be functionally equivalent in many respects, this functional equivalency is not dispositive under current Fifth Amendment jurisprudence,” the court said. “We conclude that the act-of-production analytical framework makes sense only where law enforcement compels someone to perform an act to unlock an electronic device.”
The Utah case was an officer demanding to know the passcode. A court in New York might decide that the defendant can be compelled to enter his password and hand over an unlocked phone.
But if he’s forgotten the password, then the phone is simply locked until somebody hacks into it.
Its a mess, but largely, courts cannot compel you to give up your phone password, because of the 5th amendment. They can force you to unlock a phone secured with biometrics, as that isn’t compelled speech.
Sort of, but also it hasn’t gone to the SCOTUS yet. Plus:
The Utah case was an officer demanding to know the passcode. A court in New York might decide that the defendant can be compelled to enter his password and hand over an unlocked phone.
But if he’s forgotten the password, then the phone is simply locked until somebody hacks into it.