President Obama is threading the needle with his encryption stance, for good reasons

[Commentary] When weighing the current “encryption problem,” the US sitting president must appear strong on law and order while defending our civil liberties. It’s a fine line that’s complicated by an awareness that he also must appear “modern,” fully aware of technology’s power and limits. All things considered, I think he’s more than up to to the challenge.

President Barack Obama is right to caution us: There’s a long history of police organizations bristling at the limitations imposed upon them by our Bill of Rights. When something really bad happens, officials prey on our aroused emotions to sneak bad laws into the books. In France, these are called lois scélérates—evildoer laws. Right now, the French are having a go at such reactionary legislation after the Nov 13th attacks. The new enforcement tools are almost always abused, even if the abuse is couched as part of a greater good. One such bad example is the civil forfeiture provisions that are used to seize cars and money outside of the usual due process in order to beef up a police department’s budget so that evildoers can be more effectively thwarted. I believe President Obama believes unbreakable cryptography is the lesser of two bad choices…but he must weigh what he says. Can we really expect him to say that the FBI is wrong? Instead, he lets the FBI push hard, absorbs some of the reflected sunshine for pursuing law and order, and allows the San Bernardino (CA) case to take the long, arduous road to the Supreme Court. And backdoor legislation will be introduced and discussed and discussed, with the tech industry up in arms—and dollars—against it. By then, Barack Obama will be a former president, free at last to say what he really thinks. I can’t wait.