Child Porn Defendant Can Be Forced to Decrypt Hard Drives

A man who refused to decrypt two external hard drives that the government believed contained files of child pornography was properly held in civil contempt, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held Mar. 20 (United States v. Apple MacPro Comput., 2017 BL 85780, 3d Cir., No. 15-3537, 3/20/17).

The district court found that forcing the defendant to decrypt his devices wouldn’t violate the Fifth Amendment because it was already a “foregone conclusion” that the fact that child pornography files were on this devices. This holding was not a “plain error” that should be overturned, the ...