I never mentioned San Bernadino. Law enforcement seizes phones in all kinds of criminal investigations — human traffiking, child pornography, murders, kidnapping, drug cartels, etc. Those phones provide links to locations where the victims are being held, sold, transported, etc. Also to others in the organization who are involved in grabbing new victims, coordinating crimes, killings, etc. Police get a lead to a distributor of child porn. They get a warrant, grab his computer, and get evidence. Is a phone some kind of religious artifact such that it’s OK to do a warrant search of the guy’s home computer for child porn but “wrong” to do a warrant search of his phone for child porn? Or, should all computers be immune from search warrants “just because”?
It’s never been about the NSA being able to break into all phones. They probably can already. It’s about law enforcement being able to get access to a specific phone via a specific search warrant.
