State v. Earls
New Jersey Supreme Court
70 A.3d 630 (2013)
- Written by Deanna Curl, JD
Facts
In 2006, police investigators were looking for Thomas Earls (defendant) after they received information that he was involved in local residential burglaries. The police contacted Earls’s cellular-service provider, without a warrant, to obtain information about the location of Earls’s cell phone. When a cell phone is turned on, cellular-service providers automatically collect information about the location of the phone every seven seconds from radio waves that connect the phone to local telephone and other wireless networks. After receiving three reports about the location of Earls’s phone from the cellular-service provider, the police located Earls and subsequently found that he possessed stolen property from the burglaries. At a trial on burglary charges, Earls argued that the police needed a warrant before obtaining his cell-phone location information.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Rabner, C.J.)
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