The core of the Court’s decision is that, under the “ actual malice rule” of New York Times Co. Kennedy did not participate, having joined the Court after this case was argued). Rehnquist wrote for a unanimous Court (Justice Anthony M. The Supreme Court reversed the Fourth Circuit’s judgment. (AP Photo/Charles Tasnadi)Īctual malice not applicable for public figures Jerry Falwell for an advertising parody that appeared in Flynt's Hustler magazine. The Supreme Court justices, whose ruling is expected by July, must decide the validity of a $200,000 award won by Rev. 3, 1987 after their court case was heard. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed this latter judgment, dismissing as “irrelevant” the jury finding that the Hustler parody did not describe actual facts the appeals court viewed the issue as “whether publication was sufficiently outrageous to constitute intentional infliction of emotional distress.” Sex magazine publisher Larry Flynt leave the Supreme Court building in Washington, Dec. On the libel claim, the jury found against Falwell, concluding that the Hustler parody could not “reasonably be understood as describing actual facts about or actual events in which participated.” However, the jury ruled for Falwell on the intentional infliction of emotional distress claim.
District Court for the Western District of Virginia granted a directed verdict for Hustler on Falwell’s invasion of privacy claim. At the bottom of the page was the disclaimer:“ad parody - not to be taken seriously.” Further, the magazine’s table of contents lists the ad as “Fiction Ad and Personality Parody.” Falwell sues in response to ad falsityįalwell sued Flynt to recover damages for libel, invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Feigning a real Campari ad, Hustler’s parody contains a photograph of Jerry Falwell and an interview with him about his “first time” - a drunken incestuous encounter with his mother in an outhouse. Campari ads featured various celebrities talking about their “first time,” a deliberate double entendre. Inside the front cover of its November 1983 issue, Hustler published what it characterized as a “parody.” It was a take-off on a national advertising campaign promoting Campari, an Italian liqueur. Falwell was the founder of a conservative Christian group, the Moral Majority, and Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. Flynt is the publisher of Hustler magazine, an explicitly hard-core monthly publication. The celebrated Court decision pitted two icons of 1980s politics - Larry Flynt and the late Jerry Falwell - against one another in a contest over tort liability and the First Amendment.
HUSTL MADE FREE
46 (1988), the Supreme Court reversed a lower court’s judgment for intentional infliction of emotional distress against a publisher, noting that the First Amendment protects publishers’ free speech and press rights from such claims made by public figures regarding materials that are clearly labeled as parodies. At right is Falwell's wife, Macel Falwell. Supreme Court Wednesday Decemafter a court session dealing with a suit filed by Falwell against Hustler magazine and its publisher Larry Flynt. Jerry Falwell, center, listens as his legal counsel, Norman Grutman, talks to reporters outside the U.S.
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