A bipartisan delegation of American legislators is calling on the head of the U.K. surveillance court to conduct a public hearing regarding Apple’s expected challenge to an alleged secret U.K. government legal request.

Five federal lawmakers, including U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, have expressed their thought that it is in the public interest for any hearings regarding the alleged order to not be conducted in secrecy. In a letter this week to the president of the U.K.’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), they emphasized the importance of transparency on this matter.

According to the lawmakers’ letter, the alleged U.K. order restricts California-based Apple from participating in “constitutionally protected” speech under American law and hinders their ability to perform congressional oversight.

According to reports from The Washington Post in February, the U.K. government had requested that Apple create a “backdoor” in their system, granting access to cloud-stored data of all customers globally. Despite being prohibited by law from discussing the details of this request, Apple apparently declined and instead pulled its Advanced Data Protection iCloud encryption feature for U.K. users, rather than complying with the order.

According to Senator Wyden’s letter, an upcoming private petition will be heard by the United Kingdom’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal on Friday 14th March, 2025. This tribunal, which deals with legal cases involving the use of surveillance powers in the U.K., has listed the hearing on tribunal’s public schedule and it relates to Apple, as reported.

Apple did not respond, when TechCrunch approached them on Friday, 14th March.

A spokesperson for the U.K. government has stated that they will not be providing any comments regarding operational matters at this time. This includes their decision to neither confirm nor deny the existence of any related notices.

The number of companies that have received a technical demand from the U.K. government is uncertain.

As per the legislators’ letter, Google also informed Senator Wyden’s office that “also recently told Senator Wyden’s office that, if it had received a technical capabilities notice, it would be prohibited from disclosing that fact.”

Both Liberty and Privacy International, two civil rights groups, are challenging the U.K. government’s backdoor order through a legal submission to the IPT. They have also joined previous hearings made by privacy rights groups this week, urging for the oversight body to hold a public hearing on Apple’s appeal.