An act signed into law by George Washington has become the basis for Federal prosecutors to force companies to decrypt information on digital gadgets. The All Writs Act -- enacted in 1789 as part of
the Judiciary Act, and later revised in the Twentieth century -- gives courts the right to "issue all writs necessary or appropriate in aid of their respective jurisdictions and agreeable to the
usages and principles of law," per The Register. One case occurred in New York and the other in California. Iain Thomson explains.
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