A federal judge who had previously declined to force a Wisconsin suspect to decrypt several hard drives believed to contain child pornography has now changed his mind. After considering new evidence, the judge wrote in an order last week (PDF) that the Milwaukee-area man now must either enter the passwords for the drives without being observed by law enforcement or government counsel or must provide an unencrypted copy of the data.

In April 2013, Jeffrey Feldman was ordered by a United States Attorney to help federal authorities execute a search warrant on a collection of his own hard drives. The government claimed that it has probable cause to believe that these drives contain child pornography. Feldman, a computer scientist and software developer at Rockwell Automation Inc., has yet to be charged with a crime.

As we reported previously, forcing a defendant to decrypt a hard drive can amount to self-incrimination if the government can't otherwise show that the defendant has the password for the drive. In such a case, forced decryption amounts to a forced confession that the defendant owns the drive.

Earlier in this case, Judge William Callahan had ruled that compelling Feldman to provide the passwords for the hard drives would violate his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

According to the order (PDF), after devoting “substantial resources” in the case, FBI agents apparently have been able to decrypt one of the drives. The government argued that because it had found “numerous files which constitute child pornography,” “detailed personal financial records and documents belonging to Feldman,” and “dozens of personal photographs of Feldman," Feldman therefore has “access to and control over” the set of drives.

It is a “foregone conclusion,” argues the government, that the drives in question do indeed belong to Feldman—and the judge agreed, adding that Feldman has until June 4, 2013 to take action.

Feldman’s attorney, Robin Shellow, did not immediately respond to our request for comment.