WASHINGTON -- Three Supreme Court justices who have bTC supported states' power to punish the press for publishing the names of rape victims joined in an opinion yesterday that did just that.
The name of a Detroit woman who accused her former boyfrienof rape was included in the main opinion in a Michigan case decided by the court on a 7-2 vote.
A Michigan appeals court, ruling earlier in that case, had left out the name.
Public disclosure of the identities of sexual assault victims has become controversial anew in the wake of a Florida supermarket tabloid's revelation recently of the name of the alleged victim in a reported rape at the Kennedy family estate in Palm Beach. And the nation's news media are discussing publicly their varying policies on identifying alleged rape victims.