Text Messages Can Be Used Against Their Senders in Criminal Cases, Massachusetts Court Rules The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled on Tuesday that senders of text messages are not granted a right to privacy that could stop law enforcement from obtaining and using the messages against them as evidence in a criminal case. The 5-0 precedent-setting decision (pdf) came in a case involving a Massachusetts man, Jorge Delgado-Rivera, who was indicted, alongside six others, on cocaine-trafficking charges. An investigation that led to his indictment was sparked from evidence in the form of text messages that were obtained in 2016 by a Texas police officer during a traffic stop. The officer had searched a cellphone that belonged to Leonel Garcia-Castaneda. Delgado-Rivera had sent the messages to that phone, and the messages appeared to link him to an alleged drug trafficking ring.