''Florida Star v. B.J.F.'', 491 U.S. 524 (1989), is a

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

case involving

freedom of the press Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic News media, media, especially publication, published materials, should be conside ...

and privacy rights. After ''

The Florida Star ''The Florida Star'' is a weekly newspaper in Jacksonville, Florida. Founded in 1951 to cater to Jacksonville's African American community, it is the oldest African-American newspaper in Northeast Florida. History ''The Florida Star'' was founded ...

'' newspaper revealed the full name of a rape victim it got from a police report, the victim sued for damages. State law made it illegal for a publication to print a rape victim's name, and the victim was awarded damages. On appeal, the Supreme Court ruled the imposition of damages for truthfully publishing public information violates the First Amendment.

Background

Betty Jean Freedman (referred to as B.J.F. in the filings) was a woman who reported to the

Jacksonville Sheriff's Office The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office (JSO) is a joint city-county law enforcement agency, which has primary responsibility for law enforcement, investigation, and corrections within the consolidated City of Jacksonville and Duval County, Florida, Uni ...

that she had been robbed and sexually assaulted. The Sheriff's Office put the details of what happened, including the victim's full name, in the general crime report for the county, which is placed in its press room and made available. A trainee reporter for ''

'', a local newspaper in

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the ...

, copied the item verbatim. A Florida Star reporter then included the item in the October 29, 1983 issue of the paper, but erroneously included the victim's name in violation of the newspaper's internal policy not to identify rape victims. On September 26, 1984, Freedman sued both the Sheriff's Office and the newspaper for violating Florida's

shield law A shield is a piece of personal armour held in the hand, which may or may not be strapped to the wrist or forearm. Shields are used to intercept specific attacks, whether from melee weapon, close-ranged weaponry or projectiles such as arrows, ...

, Stat. § 794.03, which makes it unlawful to "print, publish, or broadcast... in any instrument of mass communication" the name of the victim of a sexual offense. The Sheriff's Office settled, paying the victim $2,500, but the newspaper would not. The trial court rejected the newspaper's defense that § 794.03 was unconstitutional, and the jury awarded Freedman $75,000 in compensatory damages and $25,000 in punitive damages. The

Florida First District Court of Appeal The Florida First District Court of Appeal, also known as the First DCA, is headquartered in Tallahassee, Florida, the state capital. It is unique among the five Florida District Courts of Appeal in that, much like the U.S. Court of Appeals for th ...

affirmed the trial court verdict, the

Supreme Court of Florida The Supreme Court of Florida is the highest court in the U.S. state of Florida. It consists of seven members: the chief justice and six justices. Six members are chosen from six districts around the state to foster geographic diversity, and one ...

denied discretionary review, and the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari.

Opinion of the Court

The Court decided the facts in this case were not the same as those in '' Cox Broadcasting Corp. v. Cohn'' (1975), where a television station had obtained and reported the name of a rape victim from open court records, and the Supreme Court found the law there unconstitutional. The Court decided that the law was unconstitutional, but on much narrower grounds. First, the law made no effort to punish any party who disseminated the name of a rape victim ''except'' an "instrument of mass communication" which the law did not define. This meant that the most vicious gossip who spread the details around was not subject to the law, but supposedly a newspaper was. Second, the law basically punishes a newspaper which truthfully prints information which it had legitimately obtained from a government agency. While a newspaper could be punished for truthfully reporting facts which were not public knowledge or which it unlawfully obtained (the Court referred back to prior cases where it gave examples of material a newspaper might legally be punished for publishing, such as the dates and times of troop ship movements during war), it is unconstitutional for a government agency to impose punishment upon a newspaper for truthfully publishing information that the government had in fact released publicly. The judgment in favor of Freedman was reversed and the newspaper was found not liable.

References

External links

* {{US1stAmendment, press, state=expanded Florida state case law United States Free Speech Clause case law United States privacy case law United States Supreme Court cases United States Supreme Court cases of the Rehnquist Court 1989 in United States case law Rape in the United States Duval County, Florida History of women in Florida

Background

Opinion of the Court

See also

References

Further reading

External links