YEAH BUT THEN THEY DO THEY WANT QUICK TURNAROUND TO CAPTURE THE PERPS NOW or do they want to start at the lowest possible level and risk a protracted multi-year legal battle? (Sorry about caps)
Does it make any sense to start in the fed court traffic school equivalent basement if this is so *$&^ing important? Should they not welcome expediting to the point of proactively augmenting it? Ditto for the district judge assigned if he or she played a role in delegating the decision to the fed bureaucrat. (IANAL so I may be missing something.)
The legal system is configured in such a manner as to not allow them to do it any other way. They MUST start at the lowest level court which can potentially grant relief.
Presumably if it is important enough, the courts will greenlight it as fast as necessary.
In this case, there is the potential that no useful information could be obtained, and even if there is potentially useful information on the phone, the possibility exists that the method being attempted would require a year or more to succeed, and so that is probably why this isn't on a legal fast track.
If there was clear evidence to show the phone had immediately pressing, and immediately accessible data, it would probably have already gone through all the necessary court processes to accomplish it.