Interesting. A draft targeting software engineers to forcibly enlist them in the government's "war on encryption".

What kind of dystopia are we living in again?

Not a draft. As we've seen in Snowden, there are tons of engineers who support the security state and will volunteer to serve.

I don't think this could happen without enabling legislation.

The U.S. military draft required passage of the Selective Service Act [1] Something similar would be required before Apple's coders could be forced to carry out court orders directed at Apple, the corporation. Even in these times (so far!) I think this wouldn't happen.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_Service_Act_of_1917

Unfortunately I'm sure there are at least a few engineers with the expertise necessary who would happily agree to work with the FBI (for whatever reason.)

Maybe engineers with military history.