&gt; You clearly can be compelled to produce private documents as evidence.<p>You are correct - but only via due process (court order&#x2F;warrant, etc..).<p>What we have here is not due process - but rather systematic bulk collection and inspection of all electronic communications from every citizen. These private communications are then sifted through, looking for anything of interest... and if found, we then (sometimes) go get a warrant to retro-actively wiretap your communications. That&#x27;s not legal, but it&#x27;s what&#x27;s going on.<p>Regarding full-device encryption - it&#x27;s the same thing. You need a warrant to compel me to turn over my device. No law makes it legal for the government to &quot;hack&quot; into your device remotely and inspect it&#x27;s contents (unless you have a specific warrant). If the individual refuses to turn over the device or decrypt it, it&#x27;s no different than someone refusing to turn over a written letter... and we have punishments for these actions. We don&#x27;t need to ban encryption for this, we already have mechanisms in place to handle these situations.