The U.S. government said it no longer needs Apple Inc.’s assistance to get into an iPhone used by a New York drug dealer, ending a second courtroom battle over whether the company can be forced to help unlock its devices.

The Justice Department’s action follows its decision in March ending efforts to compel Apple to help unlock an iPhone used by Syed Farook, the gunman who, along with his wife, killed 14 people in a December terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California.

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Like the California case, the New York fight is ending “not with a bang, but with a whimper,” said Riana Pfefferkorn, a cryptography fellow at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society.

“The government has repeatedly insisted that Apple’s help is utterly necessary in multiple matters involving access to locked iPhones,” Pfefferkorn said. “Going forward, courts should refuse to keep rubber-stamping government efforts to dragoon third parties into doing law enforcement’s job for it.”

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