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Comment by chongli | Hacker News Reader

FBI Director James Comey already went before Congress and was rejected. I'd say the possibility of him succeeding in the future is even lower, given the way this case has played out. He effectively tried to make an end-run around the legislature by going through the courts with an extremely old law. The powers in Congress did not appreciate this at all and had a lot of very pointed questions for him at his last hearing before the House Judiciary Committee[0].

[0] http://qz.com/628745/i-have-no-idea-the-fbi-director-at-the-...

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What are we to make of these sorts of comments from Obama and Feinstein? It seems like there is strong backing by certain political interests to make it impossible for the average phone user to encrypt their own devices in such a way that the providers cannot access certain data. This dove-tails nicely with what some consider a war on general computing...

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-encryption-obama-idU...

http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/262658-feinstein-vow...

The Obama Administration simply will not throw their own (the FBI) under the bus. Fortunately for us the Democrats do not control congress so Obama is unlikely to get his wish here.

Nor is Obama's position that of the larger Democrat party.

The Republicans aren't necessarily better, but they are anti-Obama which helps on this issue.

Anti-Obama and (for I'd assume a good number) anti-encryption (in the form of pro-FBI)

Not really. The Republicans were for pervasive surveillance and for the national security state for a long time before Obama, and they remain that way now. They may use details of the present controversy to take partisan political shots at the Obama Administration, but, as a party, there's probably more support for government power in this area in the Republican Party than in the Democratic Party.

Not all the Republicans. Cruz has actively opposed the surveillance state:

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/10/ted-cruz-nsa-...

He's an outlier, if not an extremist (seen from the standpoint of the average Republican politician).

Cruz is 2nd in the polls behind Trump. Obviously quite a few Republicans support him.

Aren't you confusing republican politicians with republican voters here?

I was talking the parties as parties (and, particular, as parties-in-government rather than parties-in-the-electorate). But id be cautious about drawing conclusions about Cruz: he is a first term Senator who has spent his whole time in office in the Congressional majority with the opposing party in the White House -- members of either party seem more opposed to the surveillance state (and expansive executive powers generally) when they are in the legislative majority and the other party controls the executive.

That's even true, though perhaps less so, without the legislative majority. A lot of Democrats who don't look like solid opponents of surveillance now would if you considered only their relationship cord during the George W. Bush administration.

Might not be a popular opinion but i think the US is always at its best when its divided. Given current political situation, nothing getting passed is preferable to all alternatives.

> FBI Director James Comey already went before Congress and was rejected. I'd say the possibility of him succeeding in the future is even lower, given the way this case has played out.

All it will take is a large-scale "terrorist attack". That event will be exploited to the hilt the same way 9/11 was.

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