Cox Broadcasting Corp. v. Cohn

This 1975 ruling settled a case involving a Georgia law that banned news organizations from publishing, airing or otherwise making known the names of victims of sexual assault in conjunction with reporting the crime's prosecution. The High Court determined the law was unconstitutional, in violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing freedom of the press; it also found it in conflict with the terms of the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteeing the privileges of citizens. With this ruling the Court was tacitly indicating that an ordinary citizen (as opposed to a public figure) has little protection from intrusions by the media under certain circumstances. More significantly, though the High Court struck down a Georgia law that was essentially a holdover from an archaic era designed to protect victims of sexual assault. Several years later there would be a call to revive such statutes after a well-publicized rape case incited a national debate about the naming of victims in the press.