DOJ: We can force you to decrypt that laptop.

Prosecutors stressed that they don’t actually require the passphrase itself, meaning Fricosu would be permitted to type it in and unlock the files without anyone looking over her shoulder. They say they want only the decrypted data and are not demanding “the password to the drive, either orally or in written form.”

Really?  How magnanimous of our DOJ.
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On the other hand are civil libertarians citing other Supreme Court cases that conclude Americans can’t be forced to give “compelled testimonial communications” and extending the legal shield of the Fifth Amendment to encryption passphrases. Courts already have ruled that that such protection extends to the contents of a defendant’s mind, so why shouldn’t a passphrase be shielded as well?

In an amicus brief (PDF) filed on Friday, the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation argues that the Justice Department’s request be rejected because of Fricosu’s Fifth Amendment rights. The Fifth Amendment says that “no person…shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.”

“Decrypting the data on the laptop can be, in and of itself, a testimonial act–revealing control over a computer and the files on it,” said EFF Senior staff attorney Marcia Hofmann. “Ordering the defendant to enter an encryption password puts her in the situation the Fifth Amendment was designed to prevent: having to choose between incriminating herself, lying under oath, or risking contempt of court.”

I understand that there can be criminal work at hand, but I remember that this right has been ours for a long, long time.
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