Oral Argument Before NJ Supreme Court in Telephone Privacy Case Monday

On Monday, March 1, at 10 am, the New Jersey Supreme Court will hear oral argument in New Jersey v. Lunsford, a case that will decide whether police must continue to get a warrant before searching an individual’s telephone billing records. The state’s Attorney General has asked the Court to overturn more than three decades of state precedent in order to give police easier access to mountains of private data.

The Brennan Center, ACLU of New Jersey, Electronic Frontier foundation, and New Jersey Office of the Public Defender filed an amicus brief in the case last year arguing that the warrant requirement should stand.

“Phone records, especially when collected in bulk, can paint an intimate portrait of private life, including whether a person is ill, in need of legal advice, entangled in an extra-marital affair, or politically active,” said Michael Price, counsel in the Brennan Center’s Liberty & National Security Program. “As a result, this data deserves the highest degree of constitutional protection, as New Jersey’s highest court has recognized for decades.”

As records of electronic communications continue to become more prevalent, maintaining adequate privacy protections is more important than ever. New Jersey v. Lunsford therefore merits close attention.

Oral argument on Monday, March 1 at 10 am can be watched via livestream here.

View the Brennan Center’s case page and amicus brief.

Brennan Center experts will be available for comment. To schedule an interview, contact Naren Daniel at (646) 292–8381 or naren.daniel@nyu.edu