this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2026
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It is absolutely true. The fifth amendment means US citizens have a right to silence. It has already been ruled that neither the government nor the courts can compel someone to divulge a password under those fifth amendment protections, which is why former mayor Eric Adams was able to avoid having his phone searched by the FBI.
Whether this is destruction of evidence or not will be a decision made by the courts (it's a question at the heart of the matter in the first place), and the facts that he was allegedly repeatedly denied access to a lawyer and not read his Miranda rights are both things that are decidedly in his favor for getting the case tossed before that question is even addressed.
It isn't. Check out United States v. Apple MacPro Computer and NJ v. Andrews.
Regardless, the point remains that the subject at hand is destruction of evidence and not password compulsion.
I did. To be perfectly frank, I think they are wrong. They even said that divulging the contents of your mind is protected by the fifth amendment, but they also say that noncommunicative actions (like entering a password) are not. So you can't be compelled to say what your password is verbally, but you can be compelled to essentially write it? Absolute horseshit.
Anyway, you are correct that this is more about alleged destruction of evidence. Hopefully the court isn't able to rule on that at all due to the case being tossed.