Cellphone laws

January 2009

A jurisdiction-wide ban on driving while talking on a hand-held cellular phone is in place in 6 states (California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Utah, and Washington) and the District of Columbia. Utah has named the offense careless driving. Under the Utah law, no one commits an offense when speaking on a cellphone unless they are also committing some other moving violation other than speeding.

The law in 6 states (Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, Ohio, and Pennsylvania) specifically authorizes a locality to ban cellphone use. Localities in other states may not need specific statutory authority to ban cellphones. Localities that have enacted restrictions on cellphone use include: Chicago, IL; Brookline, MA; Detroit, MI; Santa Fe, NM; Brooklyn, North Olmstead and Walton Hills, OH; Conshohocken, Lebanon and West Conshohocken, PA; and Waupaca County, WI.

Localities are prohibited from banning cellphone use in 8 states (Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Utah).

The use of all cellular phones while driving a school bus is prohibited in 17 states and the District of Columbia.

The use of all cellular phones by novice drivers is restricted in 17 states and the District of Columbia. Louisiana has passed a law restricting teen use of cellphones, but as of this writing, it is not clear whether it bans all cellphone use or use of hand-held cellphones.

Text messaging is banned for all drivers in 7 states (Alaska, California, Connecticut, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Washington) and the District of Columbia. In addition, novice drivers are banned from texting in 9 states (Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia) and school bus drivers are banned from text messaging in 4 states (Arkansas, North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia).

The table below shows the states that have cell phone laws, whether they specifically ban text messaging, and whether they are enforced as primary or secondary laws. Under secondary laws, an officer must have some other reason to stop a vehicle before citing a driver for using a cellphone. Laws without this restriction are called primary. California and Utah have unusual provisions noted below.

State	Hand-held ban	All cellphone ban	Texting ban	Enforcement
	Laws restricting cellphone use and texting
Alabama	no	no	no	not applicable
Alaska	no	no	all drivers	primary
Arizona	no	school bus drivers	no	primary
Arkansas	no	school bus drivers	school bus drivers	primary
California	all drivers	school and transit bus drivers and drivers younger than 18	drivers younger than 18 (effective 7/1/08); all drivers	primary¹
Colorado	no	learner's permit holders	no	secondary
Connecticut	all drivers	learner's permit holders, drivers younger than 18, and school bus drivers	all drivers	primary
Delaware	no	school bus drivers and learner's permit and intermediate license holders	learner's permit and intermediate license holders	primary
District of Columbia	all drivers	school bus drivers and learner's permit holders	all drivers	primary
Florida	no	no	no	not applicable
Georgia	no	school bus drivers	no	primary
Hawaii	no	no	no	not applicable
Idaho	no	no	no	not applicable
Illinois	local option	learner's permit holders younger than 19, drivers younger than 19, and school bus drivers	no	primary
Indiana	no	no	no	not applicable
Iowa	no	no	no	not applicable
Kansas	no	no	no	not applicable
Kentucky	no	school bus drivers	no	primary
Louisiana	see footnote²	school bus drivers; with respect to novice drivers, see footnote²	all drivers	secondary; primary for school bus drivers
Maine	no	learner's permit and intermediate license holders	learner's permit and intermediate license holders	primary
Maryland	no	learner's permit and intermediate license holders	learner's permit and intermediate license holders	secondary
Massachusetts	local option	school bus drivers	no	primary
Michigan	local option	no	no	not applicable
Minnesota	no	school bus drivers and learner's permit holders and provisional license holders during the first 12 months after licensing	all drivers	primary
Mississippi	no	no	no	not applicable
Missouri	no	no	no	not applicable
Montana	no	no	no	not applicable
Nebraska	no	learner's permit and intermediate license holders younger than 18	learner's permit and intermediate license holders younger than 18	secondary
Nevada	no	no	no	not applicable
New Hampshire	no	no	no	not applicable
New Jersey	all drivers	school bus drivers and learner's permit and intermediate license holders	all drivers	primary
New Mexico	local option	no	no	not applicable
New York	all drivers	no	no	primary
North Carolina	no	drivers younger than 18 and school bus drivers	drivers younger than 18 and school bus drivers	primary
North Dakota	no	no	no	not applicable
Ohio	local option	no	no	not applicable
Oklahoma	no	no	no	not applicable
Oregon	no	drivers younger than 18 who hold either a learner's permit or an intermediate license	drivers younger than 18 who hold either a learner's permit or an intermediate license	secondary
Pennsylvania	local option	no	no	not applicable
Rhode Island	no	school bus drivers and drivers younger than 18	no	primary
South Carolina	no	no	no	not applicable
South Dakota	no	no	no	not applicable
Tennessee	no	school bus drivers and learner's permit and intermediate license holders	no	primary
Texas	no	bus drivers when a passenger 17 and younger is present; intermediate license holders for first six months	bus drivers when a passenger 17 and younger is present; intermediate license holders for first six months	primary
Utah	all drivers	no	no	secondary³
Vermont	no	no	no	not applicable
Virginia	no	drivers younger than 18 and school bus drivers	drivers younger than 18 and school bus drivers	secondary; primary for school bus drivers
Washington	all drivers	no	all drivers	secondary
West Virginia	no	drivers younger than 18 who hold either a learner's permit or an intermediate license	drivers younger than 18 who hold either a learner's permit or an intermediate license	secondary
Wisconsin	no	no	no	not applicable
Wyoming	no	no	no	not applicable

¹An officer in California can stop a person, regardless of age, holding a cellphone and talking or texting on it, but they may not use checkpoints to enforce the all cell ban for drivers younger than 18.

²During the 2008 legislative session, Louisiana passed 3 different cellphone laws addressing teen drivers. The governor signed all three. As of September 12, 2008, it is unclear whether both hand-held and hands-free phone use is prohibited, or whether only hand-held phone use is banned. All 3 laws prohibit text messaging. A 4th cell phone law prohibits cellphone use by school bus drivers.

³Utah's law defines careless driving as committing a moving violation (other than speeding) while distracted by use of a hand-held cellphone or other activities not related to driving.