ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines a communitarian normative position that it suggests one ought to apply in deliberating such matters. It examines the arguments of those who favor UE despite the harm it poses to security and public safety, as well as responses to these arguments that call for providing the government with an access mechanism. The chapter suggests specific legal grounds under which Congress or the courts might ban UE if tech companies continue to refuse to provide a government access mechanism. Liberal communitarians thus take for granted that deliberations about legitimate public policy ought to start with the assumption that privacy must be balanced with concern for national security, rather than from the position that privacy intrusions are ipso facto a violation of a basic right or freedom. First, they argue that the introduction of 'exceptional access mechanisms' into privately developed encryption systems to enable law-enforcement investigations would greatly weaken US national security.
