@Nonilex Yeah, I really think this one screwed himself. They're not going after the OS. The mechanism is legal. I don't see them claiming it's not anywhere. What's illegal is destruction of evidence and they really seem to have him on it. They threatened to take his phone so he gave this code.

Just STFU and get a lawyer. Don't play games. He would have been fine. Now he has to prove they had to right to ask to begin with. I don't think that's doable in the current legal framework.

@Nonilex One defense option: the defendant didn’t destroy any evidence *himself*, he allowed *them* to destroy the contents of his phone. When they chose to input a passcode acquired through interrogation, they should have known that there was a chance that data would be erased. (Not a lawyer, but this seems like a valid defense)

@Nonilex It comes down to the definition of evidence, which needs to be connected to a crime. If there's no crime, it's not evidence.
Also absent from the discussion is that CBP is acting on behalf of the FBI here because the guy is an activist opposing Cop City in Atlanta. The technical issues are not the scary part.