RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

All the scheduled briefs are in for the legal battle between Apple and the FBI. The parties will be in a federal courtroom in the Central District of California next week.

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

On the surface, the case is about unlocking the iPhone used by Syed Rizwan Farook. He and his wife were the shooters who killed 14 people in San Bernardino.

MONTAGNE: But this fight is between one of the most powerful companies on earth and one of the most powerful law enforcement agencies on earth - high stakes. And it's become clear it raises technical and legal questions that reach far beyond one iPhone.

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TIM COOK: Can the government compel Apple to write software that we believe would make hundreds of millions of customers vulnerable around the world, including in the U.S.?

KELLY: That's Apple CEO Tim Cook speaking on ABC News. He said the FBI wants his engineers to write, quote, "the software equivalent of cancer." President Obama, meanwhile, says the bigger issue really is about the law and being above the law in the digital age.

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PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: If technologically it is possible to make an impenetrable device or system where the encryption is so strong that there's no key, there's no door at all, then how do we apprehend the child pornographer? How do we solve a - or disrupt a terrorist plot?

KELLY: A lot of us are struggling with this about what the limits of encryption should be and how hard it should be to unlock the content of our smartphones, these handy, addictive little devices.

MONTAGNE: We want to hear your questions and answer them on our blog and on air with the best research and insights, so take a look at our coverage at npr.org/applefbi and share your follow-up questions in the comments section or by e-mailing [email protected]. That's [email protected]. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.