Obama administration officials said Thursday that they “don’t have an obligation” to try to break into an Apple smartphone by getting help from the intelligence community, an argument they hope will bolster its case that Apple should do the job for them.

Government attorneys pointed to a New York case in which Apple was ordered to help authorities unlock one of the company’s devices. The company suggested that some elements of the intelligence community, like the National Security Agency, had the ability to do the job on their own.