By Associated Press

Nevada’s state wiretap law was written before wireless devices came into everyday use.

But a state Supreme Court panel says it still gives police access to cellphone calls and text messages.

The ruling Thursday by a three-justice panel means police can continue to seek and obtain court warrants to intercept calls and texts.

The high court rejected an appeal by Phillip Douglas Sharpe, who’s serving 10 years to life in state prison on a Lyon County drug trafficking conviction.

Sharpe’s attorney is Paul Quade in Reno. He says he may ask the entire seven-member high court to reconsider the decision.

In the opinion, Justice Mark Gibbons writes that cellular telephone calls and text messages meet the definition of wire communications in state law written in 1973.