It's legal for them to disable the software but not for them to prevent the user from using the hardware. It depends on how literal the "bricking" really is but

It's legal for them to disable the software but not for them to prevent the user from using the hardware. It depends on how literal the "bricking" really is but if they made it impossible to load up (say) cyanogenmod then they could be up for a big destruction of property lawsuit.