What about your iPhone is foregone?

This month, the Oregon Court of Appeals in State v. Pittman, 300 Or App 147 (Ore. Ct. App. Oct. 16, 2019) ruled that the Fifth Amendment did not prevent the police from requiring a defendant to disclose the passcode to her smartphone.   

gone conclusion. Given the latter conclusion, defendant’s challenge to the court’s ruling (as presented in her opening brief) is not viable, and we affirm.”. Id. at 149. 

The Court noted that SCOTUS has never applied the foregone conclusion doctrine to anything other than document productions.  State courts and federal appellate courts have applied the doctrine inconsistently.  Some courts have found that the passcode to an encrypted device must be a foregone conclusion; others that a defendant’s knowledge of the passcode must be foregone; and still others that the contents must be foregone. 

The Oregon Court of Appeals ruled that only the knowledge of the passcode had to be a foregone conclusion.