I was bothered by this too, and still am somewhat bothered, but it appears to be false. First, as you've undoubtedly read already, the order is pursuant to the All Writs Act (28 U.S. Code § 1651 -- click for full text, a mere 53 words), the original form of which was part of the Judiciary Act of 1789, passed by the First Congress.
There is one pretty on-point precedent under that act, United States v. New York Telephone Co. 434 U.S. 159 (1977), in which New York Telephone was ordered to assist the government in placing a "pen register" on its systems to see who was calling a certain suspected number. (If "pen register" rings a bell, it's because it's the same concept used by the government to justify the mobile phone metadata program leaked by Edward Snowden.)
This case is an incoherent mess, says Orin Kerr, professor of law, writing on the Washington Post. The Supreme Court ruled for the government, although their reasoning and the applicability to current circumstances are unclear.
The New York Telephone case did make clear that company is entitled to compensation. New York Telephone apparently had standard rates for this sort of thing, but what would Apple charge? I can only guess that they would pick some insanely high hourly rate and charge based on that.
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