Does being forced to decrypt a file violate your Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination?

That's the case made by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in a new brief filed in the case of Leon Gelgatt. The 49-year-old Marblehead, Mass. attorney, was indicted in 2010 in a $1.3 million mortgage fraud scam. The judge denied the government’s attempt to compel Gelfgatt to decrypt the hard drive that law enforcement had seized.

The case is now in appeal before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. The EFF, along with the American Civil Liberties Union, filed an amicus brief in the case.

“Our brief argues that the lower court got it right. The Fifth Amendment protects a person from being forced to reveal the ‘contents of his mind’ to the government, allowing law enforcement to learn facts it didn't already know,” the brief, which we've copied below, reads.

“When it comes to compelled decryption, the Fifth Amendment clearly applies because the government would be learning new facts beyond simply the encryption key.

http://www.dailydot.com/politics/electronic-frontier-foundation-dec...