Apple will face the FBI in federal court in California on March 22 to address whether it needs to help the agency break into San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook's iPhone.
On Tuesday, Apple released a document it will use during next week's hearing, the last scheduled brief before it goes to court.
In it, Apple acknowledges that the case is "in a difficult context after a terrible tragedy."
"But it is in just such highly-charged and emotional cases that the courts must zealously guard civil liberties and the rule of law and reject government overreaching. This Court should therefore deny the government's request and vacate the order," Apple's lawyers write.
As expected, Apple continues to argue that compelling it to create code to help the FBI access the data on an iPhone would violate the First Amendment.
Here's the entire document:
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: Obama on encryption: “It's fetishizing our phones above every other value"