Apple opposes US appeal over iPhone in New York drug case

Apple Inc argued on Friday that the US Justice Department had failed to substantiate that it needed the company's help to access a locked iPhone in a New York drug case.

Apple's brief, filed in federal court in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, came a week after the US government said it would push on with an appeal of a federal judge's ruling in February holding that he could not force the company to hand over the phone's data.