Hard Disk decryption protection

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A federal appeals court has ruled that the fifth amendment a la "no person shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself," covers the forced decryption of a hard disk. In United States v. Doe, FBI agents wanted to decrypt hard disks seized from a man they were investigating, but when a grand jury ordered the man to produce the unencrypted contents of those encrypted disks, he invoked his protection under the Fifth Amendment. The court held him in contempt and sent him to jail. "The government's attempt to force this man to decrypt his data put him in the Catch-22 the 5th Amendment was designed to prevent – having to choose between self-incrimination or risking contempt of court," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Marcia Hofmann.