Cruz: Apple Should Open San Bernardino Attacker’s Phone

GOP presidential candidate Texas Senator Ted Cruz argued that “Apple has the right side on the global don’t make us do this to every iPhone on the market. But I think law enforcement has the better argument” in unlocking the phone used by one of the San Bernardino terrorists during CNN’s Republican Presidential Town Hall on Wednesday.

Cruz said that Apple should be compelled to unlock the terrorist’s phone because there is a search warrant.

He added, “I think Apple has serious argument that they should not be forced to put a backdoor in every cell phone everyone has. … So I think Apple has the right side on the global don’t make us do this to every iPhone on the market. But I think law enforcement has the better argument, this concerns the phone of one of the San Bernardino hackers. And for law enforcement to get a judicial search order, that’s consistent with the Fourth Amendment. That’s how the Bill of Rights operates, to say Apple, open this phone, not Anderson’s phone, not everyone’s here, open this phone.”

Cruz further stated that “[N]obody has a right to defy a legal search warrant.” And “[W]hen you have a criminal, when you have a terrorist, we know the San Bernardino terrorists were radical Islamic terrorists. If the Obama administration were not in this politically correct state of denial ignoring that it is radical Islamic terrorism, we should have done more to prevent that attack, but after the fact, we ought to be using every tool we can to ascertain who else they might be in contact with, if there’s a broader cell. So, of course, we should unlock their phones and find out who they’re talking to, what texts they’re sending, and that’s a basic matter of keeping this country safe.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett