The Florida Star v. B.J.F., 1988, is a U.S Supreme Court case that revolved around the First Amendment rights of a newspaper versus an individual's right to privacy. The Florida Star, a local newspaper, published the full name of rape victim B.J.F in violation of Florida statute which prohibits publishing or broadcasting victims' names. B.J.F sued for damages claiming emotional distress and personal humiliation caused by this publication. The state courts ruled in favor of her but on appeal to the Supreme Court, it was held that imposing sanctions on the press for publishing publicly available information violated their First Amendment rights. However, they also noted that states could potentially protect such interests through other means without infringing upon freedom of speech and press.

In the dissenting opinion for The Florida Star v. B.J.F., Justice White, joined by Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justice O'Connor, argued that the First Amendment does not provide absolute protection to the press against liability for damages caused by publishing truthful information obtained from public records. They contended that a state could constitutionally punish publication of certain types of information if it was highly offensive and not of legitimate concern to the public. In this case, they believed that revealing a sexual assault victim's identity fell into this category as it did not contribute significantly to public debate or understanding but rather served only to harm and humiliate her further. Therefore, they disagreed with majority’s decision in favor of The Florida Star newspaper on grounds that its freedom of speech rights were violated when held liable for disclosing B.J.F.'s name in violation of Florida statute.