Apple will tell them to pound sand. Just like last time. I'm surprised the Feebs asked.
At that level, it really doesn't make a difference. Last time the FBI dropped
the suit because they got the phone cracked otherwise.
If anyone with a big bank account wants to mess you up, be it corporate, religious, or political, it_can_be_done.
If you want privacy : Don't use electronics. Seriously. Any privacy you have is incidental, and not really a matter of privacy as much as nobody cares about your crap. If somebody DOES care about your crap, and they have money/power, your privacy is of no concern whatsoever.
I ain't all that good - and I am only fussin with encryption. But it really is no different than passwords. If I have hands on your box, and I want in, I am getting in. I can crack a windows password without even breaking a sweat - literally about as fast as I can heat my dinner up in the microwave. Most container-style files, compression files, and etc, same thing. CMOS might take a while, but I will get it done... Same with CMOS locked drives - probably about an 80% chance I will crack it. If it is a password system you probably can't stop me.
Encryption is the next gen, and very difficult. but I have successfully decrypted 3 hard drives... And one of those in the wild (Actually did it, not just controlled experiment). My current ext usb for my laptop is that trophy. It took me about a week of total obsession. But I did it.
So don't think any of this happy crap is about the tech. It is not. You have no privacy in the electronic world - And probably don't want it... Because if you truly DID have that privacy, A guy like me would not be able to fix it for you.
It is still about white hat/black hat hackers, and always will be.