High Court to Rule on Using Victim Name : Paper Says Paying Award for Mistake Would Bankrupt It

The Supreme Court today agreed to decide whether states may bar publication or broadcast of a rape victim’s name that reporters get from law enforcement officials.

The court said it will hear an appeal by a weekly Florida newspaper ordered to pay $97,500 to a rape victim for what the paper said was inadvertent publication of her name.

Lawyers for the Florida Star, a newspaper primarily serving the black community in Jacksonville, said it will be put out of business if forced to pay the award.

The Star obtained the rape victim’s name from a report posted by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Department in its press room in October, 1983.

Trainee Copied Report

The newspaper said a reporter trainee copied the sheriff’s report, including the victim’s name. It was published even though the newspaper has a policy against identifying rape victims.

“There was no factual dispute that the name was published in error and in violation of the Star’s own policy,” the newspaper said.

Publication of the name violated a Florida law that makes it a misdemeanor to publish or broadcast names or other identifying information of “the victim of any sexual offense.”

The victim of the 1983 assault sued Sheriff Dale Carson and the Star. She was awarded $2,500 from the sheriff and $97,500 from the newspaper.

1975 Ruling Quoted

Lawyers for the Star said a 1986 state appeals court ruling that upheld the award ignored a series of Supreme Court decisions, including a 1975 ruling that states may not outlaw the broadcast of rape victims’ names.

In that case, the victim’s name was used in an open court hearing in which five men pleaded guilty to the attack.

In that 1975 ruling, the Supreme Court said the Constitution’s First Amendment does not allow states to “impose sanctions for the publication of truthful information contained in official court records open to public inspection.”

Not Like Public Record

Lawyers for the Florida rape victim, a nurse’s assistant with four children, said there is a distinction between court records and the report provided by the Jacksonville sheriff.

In other action today, the court:

--Refused to kill a lawsuit charging the Boeing Co. with illegal age bias because it bars pilots from active flight status when they reach age 60.

--Refused to revive a challenge to the way Laurence A. Tisch became president of CBS Inc.

The justices, without comment, let stand a ruling that Tisch’s assumption of power did not amount to a transfer of control requiring prior approval by the Federal Communications Commission.