It looks as though FBI Director James Comey, long a critic of the iPhone's security measures, may at last have something to cheer about. As reported by The Virginian-Pilot (via MacRumors), today a circuit court judge in Virginia ruled that the fingerprints used to access an iPhone through Touch ID aren't protected by the Fifth Amendment, thus allowing law enforcement officials to access the devices of suspects.
The ruling allows a workaround for police officers and other law enforcement officials, who've previously been thwarted in their attempts to access iPhones for evidence by rulings stating that handing over passcodes violates the amendment. The amendment itself states that "no person shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself."
David Baust in court, via WAVY
According to the report, "Judge Steven C. Frucci ruled this week that giving police a fingerprint is akin to providing a DNA or handwriting sample or an actual key, which the law permits. A pass code, though, requires the defendant to divulge knowledge, which the law protects against, according to Frucci's written opinion."
The case itself centers on one David Baust, who's accused of strangling his girlfriend way back in February, and there's a chance he might have filmed the attack with his iPhone. Prosecutors want access to the phone to see if this is true, and Baust's fingerprint would allow them access that a regular passcode would not. The catch is that Baust's phone is almost certainly protected by the phone's passcode safeguard at this point, which activates when a user hasn't used his or her iPhone after 48 hours. It also activates in the case of a restart or when Touch ID has failed to unlock the phone after three attempts.
This isn't necessarily the end of the story, however, as a higher court could still overturn Frucci's ruling.
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