Maryland’s highest court was asked Friday to determine how much a driver has to be handling a phone before police have sufficient reason to pull the driver over for using a cellphone while driving.

The case stems from Michael Eugene Stone’s 2023 stop and subsequent arrest on drug charges in Hagerstown, after police saw him “touch” or tap the screen of his dash-mounted phone in a way they said looked like he might be texting or making a call.

After stopping Stone for “using the phone while driving,” the officers discovered that he was driving on a suspended license, and in a subsequent search of him and his car they found drugs, drug paraphernalia and brass knuckles.

At trial, Stone tried to get the search evidence suppressed, arguing that police did not have the reasonable suspicion nee

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