> It might very well help public appeal if there was a person resisting the government compared to a large corporation.

I was thinking that too, but then I reflected on the anti-Apple opinions I've seen in this case (mostly from a small subset of my Facebook friends). My fear is that it would actually do the opposite - it would give a face to the "spoiled" and "liberal nutjob" Silicon Valley nerds who "want to help terrorists." I hope I'm wrong...

For example if the engineer in question was an unattractive male, perhaps also a minority, someone with weird hobbies etc.

What legal fees? It's Apple Inc which bears responsibility in this case, not individual employees. As the article suggests:

> if the engineers refused to write the code, rather than outright quit, “then I think that the court would be much more likely to find Apple in contempt,”