Black caucus treads carefully into Apple-FBI fight

The Congressional Black Caucus is taking a cautious stance in the fight between Apple and the FBI over a locked iPhone even as prominent civil rights groups rush to back the tech giant. “We have not taken a position on it,” said Caucus Chairman G. K. Butterfield (D-NC).

The case has raised significant civil rights concerns, and other prominent African-American leaders and Black Lives Matter supporters are lining up behind Apple in its defiance of an FBI court order directing it to unlock the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino (CA) shooters. Those activists say an FBI win would set off a slippery slope of intrusive government data requests that would most directly affect minorities and political activists. But the CBC says it has no plans to issue a letter or statement similarly siding with Apple. Instead, several CBC members said they believe they can help find common ground in the divisive fight that has pitted law enforcement and the government against the tech community and privacy advocates. “We have a different role than our civil rights leaders and others,” said Rep Cedric Richmond (D-LA), a CBC member who is also Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Security Technologies. “We have responsibilities to go into our SCIF [sensitive compartmented information facility], our confidential briefings, our classified briefings and make sure we’re getting all the information."