They just wanted permission to read everyone's phone whenever

We all knew they could break in whenever they wanted to.

“The FBI says Apple has the ‘exclusive technical means’” to unlock the phone, Snowden said during a discussion at Common Cause’s Blueprint for Democracy conference.

“Respectfully, that’s bullshit,” he said, over a video link from Moscow.

Of course it was bullshit. Today they broke in anyway because.. of course they could.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Justice Department said Monday that it had found a way to unlock an iPhone without help from Apple, allowing the agency to withdraw its legal effort to compel the company to assist in a mass-shooting investigation.

The decision to drop the case — which involved demanding Apple’s help to open the iPhone used by Syed Rizwan Farook, a gunman in the December shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., that killed 14 people — ends a standoff between the government and the world’s most valuable public company. The case had become increasingly contentious as the company refused to help authorities, citing privacy issues.

They still don't have a clear legal prerogative to do even that.  They assume they do, though.  What they hoped to achieve through the lawsuit was explicit legal permission to just read everything they want to whenever they want to.  We know they do this anyway. But that's not enough. What they want is for us to love Big Brother.