Authorities decrypt laptop without defendant's help, Fifth Amendment need not apply

Constitutional junkies have had their eyes on Colorado for awhile now, because a federal judge there ordered a woman to decrypt her hard drive in a criminal trial. This, despite her cries that doing so would violate her Fifth Amendment right to be free from self-incrimination. The argument is now moot, as authorities have managed to access the laptop's data without any aid from the defendant, thereby obviating any Constitutional conundrums. Who knows if the feds found the evidence of bank-fraud they were looking for, or whether it was brute force or a lucky guess that did the trick, but at least we can say it's the last of the laptop-related Fifth Amendment court cases for awhile, right?

Authorities decrypt laptop without defendant's help, Fifth Amendment need not apply originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Mar 2012 09:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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