Warrantless cellphone tracking violates an individual’s privacy, the...
Warrantless cellphone tracking violates an individual’s privacy, the New Jersey Supreme Court said Thursday. “Under the plain view doctrine, the State cannot show that the officers were lawfully in the motel room because their presence flowed directly from a warrantless…
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search of T-Mobile’s records,” Chief Justice C.J. Rabner wrote for a unanimous court in State v. Thomas W. Earls (http://bit.ly/18t5Kcx). The case goes back to a January 2006 police case regarding robberies in Middletown. “Article I, Paragraph 7 of the New Jersey Constitution protects an individual’s privacy interest in the location of his or her cell phone,” the court said. “Police must obtain a warrant based on a showing of probable cause, or qualify for an exception to the warrant requirement, to obtain tracking information through the use of a cell phone.” No one buys a cellphone expecting to be tracked, the court said. The court did not rule retroactively because it may disrupt legal proceedings, it said, applying the ruling to the case in question as well as future cases. The ruling creates “a new rule of law,” it added: “As to future cases, the warrant requirement will take effect thirty days from today to allow the Attorney General adequate time to circulate guidance to all state and local law enforcement officials.” The issue has faced recent legal and political debate, with Maine and Montana recently enacting laws forbidding warrantless cellphone tracking and the American Legislative Exchange Council considering draft model legislation for other states on the issue (CD July 15 p7).