Cox Broadcasting Corp. v. Cohn

In a 6-1 vote, the High Court overturned the Georgia law that prohibited news outlets from broadcasting or printing the name of a rape victim, deeming it a violation of the First Amendment. Furthermore, it also held that a suit for damages on the basis of invasion of privacy--which Cohn had requested--in this case was not applicable. In his opinion, Justice White wrote that states may not impose laws that interfere with freedom of the press, and that court proceedings, moreover, were an especially protected area of public record. Noting that press coverage of trials was an integral part of the judicial system's fairness, White asserted that he and the other justices

are reluctant to embark on a course that would make public records generally available to the media but forbid their publication if offensive to the sensibilities of the supposed reasonable man. Such a rule would make it very difficult for the media to inform citizens about the public business and yet stay within the law . . . Once true information is disclosed in public court documents open to public inspection, the press cannot be sanctioned for publishing it. In this instance as in others reliance must rest upon the judgment of those who decide what to publish or broadcast.

The only dissenting vote in the opinion was from Justice Rehnquist, who wrote that the High Court did not have jurisdiction over the case, in part because the damages suit had not yet made it to court.