WASHINGTON (CN) - With their fight over an impenetrable iPhone poised to shape the balance between privacy and security, the FBI and Apple both urged Congress to intervene on their behalf Tuesday.
The debate coming to a head on Capitol Hill stems from the bureau's request that Apple create a new operating system to help it unlock the iPhone 5 used by Syed Farook, one of the attackers behind the December 2015 shooting rampage that left 14 dead and 22 injured in San Bernardino, Calif.
FBI Director James Comey told the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday that Farook's phone will wipe itself if agents trying to predict the shooter's security code enter the wrong pin 10 times.
Without this security feature, the FBI would need just 26 minutes to "guess" Farook's password, Comey said.
Though a federal magistrate ordered Apple to help unlock the phone, the company has refused, arguing that the ruling would fundamentally change its product and set dangerous precedent.
In support of its request, the FBI has relied on an 18th century law called the All Writs Act, commonly used for search warrants.
Apple says there is nothing in the statute however that requires it to rewrite code so that it can comply with government requests.
The friction between law enforcement and iPhone security is nothing new, but Apple's resistance to breaking Farook's phone has put a spotlight on the issue.
Just one day ahead of this hearing, a federal judge refused to make Apple comply in an unrelated New York case involving a suspected drug trafficker.
Saying the debate belongs in Washington, U.S. Magistrate Judge James Orenstein said "it would betray our constitutional heritage and our people's claim to democratic governance for a judge to pretend that our Founders already had that debate, and ended it, in 1789."
That debate was in full force Tuesday at the hearing room on Capitol Hill.
Denying Apple's claim about the far-reaching implications of this issue, Comey assured members of Congress that the San Bernardino iPhone case is narrowly tailored.
"This case in San Bernardino is not about the FBI, it's not about Apple, it's not about Congress, it's not about anything other than trying to do a proper investigation in an ongoing and active case," Comey said.
Despite his efforts to downplay the scope of the FBI's request, however, Comey conceded that a court forcing Apple to help unlock the phone could "potentially" create a precedent in the sense that any decision by any judge creates one."
"There's already a door on that iPhone," Comey said. "Essentially we're asking Apple to take the vicious guard dog away and let us pick the lock."
Before his death in a gun battle with police after the San Bernardino massacre, Farook used an iPhone 5c running Apple's iOS 9 operating system.
Comey emphasized that Apple is already pushing this combination out with newer models that will not be able to use the same back door Apple would create to unlock Farook's phone.
Members of Congress seemed resistant to giving the FBI broad authority to compel help from private companies in getting around their devices' security measures.