Apple has defeated a US government attempt to force it to unlock an iPhone as part of a criminal investigation into a drugs case, handing it an important victory in the first test case on the issue.
The decision, by a federal judge in New York, comes two weeks after Apple sought a showdown with the FBI over a separate demand in California requiring it to break into an iPhone that had belonged to one of the shooters in the San Bernardino massacre.
In a 50-page ruling, judge James Orenstein backed some of the arguments that Apple has also made in its California defence. He also attacked the US government over what he described as an attempt to pre-empt Congress by getting the courts to expand its law enforcement powers.