Judge Orders Defendant to Decrypt Laptop
This is an interesting case:
At issue in this case is whether forcing Boucher to type in that PGP passphrase—which would be shielded from and remain unknown to the government—is “testimonial,” meaning that it triggers Fifth Amendment protections. The counterargument is that since defendants can be compelled to turn over a key to a safe filled with incriminating documents, or provide fingerprints, blood samples, or voice recordings, unlocking a partially-encrypted hard drive is no different.
AH • March 2, 2009 1:03 PM
This is an excellent summary of the case from a respected legal scholar. It is interesting, but not that interesting. The government knows with absolute certainty there is child pornography on the computer. This is not a jack booted thug/tinfoil hat situation, it’s a situation where law enforcement saw the child pr0n but powered down the laptop, restoring it to encrypted:
http://volokh.com/posts/chain_1197670606.shtml