Supreme Court defends right to satirize public figures
The U.S.Supreme Court votes 8-0 to overturn the 200000 settlement awarded to the Reverend Jerry Falwell for his emotional distress at being parodied in Hustler a pornographic magazine.In 1983 Hustler ran a piece parodying Falwells first sexual experience as a drunken incestuous childhood encounter with his mother in an outhouse.Falwell an important religious conservative and founder of the Moral Majority political advocacy group sued Hustler and its publisher Larry Flynt for libel.
Falwell won the case but Flynt appealed leading to the Supreme Courts hearing the case because of its constitutional implications.In February 1988 the Supreme Court unanimously overturned the lower courts decision ruling that although in poor taste Hustlers parody fell within the First Amendments protection of freedom of speech and the press.
