• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
Tech

How to Get a Ticket for the Apple-FBI Trial

By
Jeff John Roberts
Editor, Finance and Crypto
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Jeff John Roberts
Editor, Finance and Crypto
Down Arrow Button Icon
March 18, 2016, 7:22 AM ET
US-ATTACKS-IT-APPLE-FBI
Photograph by TIMOTHY A. CLARY—AFP/Getty Images

It’s no exaggeration to call this the tech trial of the decade—or maybe the century. It’s about Apple and the FBI squaring off over an encrypted iPhone: The U.S. says Apple (AAPL) must decrypt the phone to fight terrorism, but Apple and others say doing this would be a privacy-busting disaster that will hurt freedom across the globe.

Now, after weeks of jousting in the press and a flurry of legal briefs, Apple and the Justice Department will finally meet face-to-face on Tuesday in a California courtroom.

Want to see this historic showdown for yourself? Well, get ready for lots of company. The courtroom will be buzzing with lawyers, reporters and—this is just a guess—hundreds or thousands of activists and Apple loyalists who will turn up to support the company.

It will be a circus, in other words. But a circus with rules: On Thursday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym published a memo explaining how many people will get to watch, and how. Note there will be no livestream nor any media updates from the courtroom.

 

 

If you want to attend, here is what you need to know:

  • The hearing will begin at 1 p.m. at the federal courthouse at 3470 12th St. in Riverside, Calif. The court will start giving out tickets at 7 a.m.

 

  • There will be only 36 tickets for the courtroom (Apple and the Justice Department will receive an additional nine tickets each to hand out as they see fit).

 

  • There will also be overflow rooms where additional spectators can watch the hearing on a monitor. Altogether, there is room for a total of 324 spectators.

 

  • The court will give out one ticket per person, and you cannot pick up a ticket for someone else.

So what does this mean in practice? It means get there early—very early, as there’s a good chance there will be a long line even at 7 a.m. Indeed, this could resemble a high-profile hearing before the Supreme Court, when people wait overnight to ensure they get a seat. As one observer put it on Twitter, “It’s gonna be Mad Max up in there.” (But if you miss out, don’t worry, there will be other chances—this thing is almost certainly going to the Supreme Court.)

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

Oh, and in case the stakes weren’t high enough, a group of Apple engineers just raised them more by telling The New York Times they will quit rather than obey the FBI order. Finally, here’s a full copy of Judge Pym’s order, which has additional details about security procedures:

Judge Pym Hearing Instructions

About the Author
By Jeff John RobertsEditor, Finance and Crypto
LinkedIn iconTwitter icon

Jeff John Roberts is the Finance and Crypto editor at Fortune, overseeing coverage of the blockchain and how technology is changing finance.

See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Success
  • Tech
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Environment
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Health
  • Retail
  • Lifestyle
  • Politics
  • Newsletters
  • Magazine
  • Features
  • Commentary
  • Mpw
  • CEO Initiative
  • Conferences
  • Personal Finance
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map

Latest in Tech

AIRecruiting
To ease recruiters’ fears of being replaced by AI, Zillow experimented with ‘prompt-a-thons.’ Now the real estate giant has 6 new recruitment tools
By Paige McGlauflin and HR BrewJanuary 6, 2026
7 hours ago
zhan, deepak
AIRobotics
Robots are really advancing because they’re learning to think for themselves—and they’re close to figuring out door handles, execs say
By Nick LichtenbergJanuary 6, 2026
8 hours ago
LawAmazon
Amazon is cutting checks to millions of customers as part of a $2.5 billion FTC settlement. Here’s who qualifies and how to get paid
By Sydney LakeJanuary 6, 2026
9 hours ago
InvestingU.S. economy
Ray Dalio says AI is in ‘the early stages of a bubble,’ so watch out for 2026
By Tristan BoveJanuary 6, 2026
10 hours ago
musk
AISocial Media
Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot draws global backlash for generating sexualized images of women and children without consent
By Kelvin Chan and The Associated PressJanuary 6, 2026
10 hours ago
Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi speaking on stage at a Fortune tech conference.
AIEye on AI
Want AI agents to work better? Improve the way they retrieve information, Databricks says
By Jeremy KahnJanuary 6, 2026
10 hours ago

Most Popular

placeholder alt text
Personal Finance
Janet Yellen warns the $38 trillion national debt is testing a red line economists have feared for decades
By Eva RoytburgJanuary 5, 2026
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
AI
Experienced software developers assumed AI would save them a chunk of time. But in one experiment, their tasks took 20% longer
By Sasha RogelbergJanuary 5, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Blackstone exec says elite Ivy League degrees aren’t good enough—new analysts need to 'work harder' and be nice 
By Ashley LutzJanuary 5, 2026
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Personal Finance
Current price of silver as of Monday, January 5, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJanuary 5, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Personal Finance
Current price of gold as of January 5, 2025
By Danny BakstJanuary 5, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Future of Work
Bank of America CEO says he hired 2,000 recent Gen Z grads from 200,000 applications, and many are scared about the future
By Ashley LutzJanuary 3, 2026
4 days ago

© 2025 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.