Ride the Lightning

N.J. Supreme Court Rules Warrant Required to Track Cell Phone Location

July 23, 2013

Not only did this ruling reverse an appellate ruling, it did so unanimously. The New Jersey Supreme Court held that individuals have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their location, requiring that law enforcement needs probable cause and a warrant before tracking someone's cell phone location.

As Chief Judge Stuart Rabner noted in the court's opinion,"With increasing accuracy, cell phones can now trace our daily movements and disclose not only where individuals are located at a point in time but also which shops, doctors, religious services, and political events they go to, and with whom they choose to associate. . . Yet people do not buy cell phones to serve as tracking devices or reasonably expect them to be used by the government in that way."

The case involves Thomas Earls, convicted of burglary in 2007, who appealed his conviction. He pled guilty to burglary and theft after a trial judge said an emergency exception applied to the warrant requirement. An appellate panel ruled that a warrant was not required, but the case will now be remanded for a further appellate determination of whether an emergency exception applies to the warrant requirement as now established by the Supreme Court.

I think most of us would welcome more decisions like this one.