Legal Question in Telecomm Law in New York

Re: Content of Text Messaging

Probably not. Most carriers don't, per their public announcements, retain SMS messages that traverse their networks for a variety of liability and network management reasons (so they, and likely properly, claim -- as to the former for just such cases as this). Moreover, if your wife has her own account, you have no legal basis to get them. If it's a "joint" (or "family") account then you may be able to ask for them but I'd bet the carrier will notify the holder of the device with the number you seek to dump the SMS from to get their permission first -- it's a privacy issue.