Encryption Passphrase Protected by the 5th Amendment

A post in Slashdot last weekend notes that Federal Judge Jerome Niedermeier ruled that prosecutors cannot force a defendant to disclose the encryption passphrase for his laptop in a case in Vermont since he's protected by the Fifth Amendment.

Niedermeier tossed out a grand jury's subpoena directing defendant Sebastien Boucher to provide "any passwords" used with his laptop. "Compelling Boucher to enter the password forces him to produce evidence that could be used to incriminate him," the judge wrote in an order dated November 29th but not noticed until this week.

For details on what could become a landmark case, especially if appealed, see cnetNEWS.com.