Apple formally filed an appeal Tuesday of a federal court order mandating the company break into a phone used by one of the shooters who killed 14 people in an attack in San Bernardino, California, in December.
The company filed its appeal around 11 p.m. Tuesday, just before a deadline to formally oppose the ruling passed at midnight, Politico reported.
On Feb. 16, a federal judge in California ordered Apple to provide "reasonable technical assistance" to law enforcement agents trying to get past security measures on an iPhone that belonged to Syed Farook. He and his wife, Tashfeed Malik, died in a shootout with police after opening fire in San Bernardino and killing 14 people on Dec. 2.
In a letter to customers on Feb. 16, Apple CEO Tim Cook said he opposed the order because it would undermine necessary security measures put in place to prevent hacking and unauthorized access to iPhones.
The case sparked a national debate over whether the government's need to access devices outweighed the public's right to privacy and data security.
