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Comment by dikdik | Hacker News Reader

Isn't it amazing when corporate interests actually align with American peoples' interests?

What's more interesting in the Apple case is that protecting citizens' 4th amendment rights is contingent on protecting corporation's 1st amendment rights. Apple claimed that since code is speech, being forced to create and digitally sign the backdoor code is forced speech.

The Citizens United decision from 2010 guarantees a corporation's 1st amendment rights, but I wonder if Apple could still use this defense if that decision was overturned.

Citizens United depends on the concept that corporations have 1st Amendment rights. But it did not create that concept.

That has actually been settled law for a long time; it is how newspapers (which are corporations) are able to enjoy freedom of the press--not just the reporters individually.

So Citizens United could be overturned and it would not hurt Apple's case at all.

Umm, newspapers enjoy freedom of the press because the 1st amendment explicitly guarantees freedom of the press.

> Congress shall make no law [...] or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press

The only reason they align is because Apple wants to maintain or grow it's market share. It's intelligently recognizes that consumers want privacy, so they are fighting for it.

You say "only" as though that's a bad thing. You don't need more than one reason.

You say they want to grow or maintain their market share. As opposed to wanting to go bankrupt and fire 100,000 people. You mean, Apple wants to continue to exist? That's exactly correct. Rational self-interest is a wonderful thing, including Apple responding to their customer demands.

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