How can the government legally force anyone to WRITE code? Release code, sure (it’s called a warrant). But create non-existing code? That’s government-ordered slavery.
And the government won’t destroy the phone until they have the firmware downloaded and hacked. Period.
When they were developing this product, the developers didn’t have a ‘reset’ mechanism as they tested the prototypes?
Code may already exist within Apple.
It’s all about whether the firmware can be loaded/updated on a locked (but not wiped) device.