The names of dozens of men accused of patronizing several local brothels will be made public, the state’s Supreme Judicial Court ruled in a decision released Thursday.

Federal prosecutors who charged the alleged brothel operators earlier this said that many of the alleged clients are wealthy and hold powerful positions of power in business, politics and academia. As part of the investigation, acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy announced that criminal complaints were filed against alleged buyers in the state courts.

The 28 men have spent months trying to shield their identities but the state’s top court rejected that bid, saying it was swayed by the disclosures by the U.S. attorney’s office.

The fact that the accused men “included unidentified government officials, corporate executives, and others in positions of power, wealth, and responsibility raised legitimate public concerns about potential favoritism and bias if such hearings were held behind closed doors,” Massachusetts Justice Scott Kafker wrote in the court’s 32-page opinion.

Cambridge court officials have not scheduled probable cause hearings for the men, where a district court magistrate will consider whether to bring formal criminal charges against them. Such hearings are nearly always held in closed session in Massachusetts courts.

The state’s top court upheld a lower court ruling to permit public access to the hearings.

Lawyers for some of the accused men told GBH News in September that identifying them would significantly harm their reputations. But advocates for women who have been trafficked into the sex trade said the court’s decision is a huge step forward.

“It’s incredibly important that the men who did harm in this way — the men who bought at this brothel — are held accountable for their actions,” said Lisa Goldblatt Grace, cofounder of My Life, My Choice a Boston nonprofit that fights sex-trafficking. “The commercial sex industry is run on the demand, fed by the demand. The fact that these hearings will be held in public is a real win for pushing back on the narrative that ‘boys will be boys. It’s no big deal. It’s a victimless crime.’”

Goldblatt Grace said that young people who are sex-trafficked are often people of color from marginalized, low-income communities.

“In contrast, those who buy are more likely to be white, upper middle class, and the men who live in the suburbs with wives, with kids. The differential in power is extraordinary,” she said. “Until we lift that up and we uncover it and we hold those doing this kind of harm accountable, we’re not going to be able to make any changes.”

Audra Doody, who runs the Safe Exit Initiative in Worcester, a nonprofit helping women trying to leave the sex industry, called Thursday’s 4-0 ruling a “turning point” in creating more accountability.

“[Buyers] need to realize the harm that is being caused. A lot of them with their money or status, they feel like they can get away with anything. And I feel like in today’s society, money and power does pretty much get you out of anything. But not today,” she said. “Prostituted women are always all over the papers, even before they’re convicted. And it’s just not fair.”