Preacher Man v. Porn King: A Legal, Cultural, and Moral Drama Starring Jerry Falwell, Larry Flynt, and the First Amendment

Abstract

Take one part proselytizing, political Southern Baptist televangelist, one part obnoxious, media-seeking pornographer, and one part First Amendment free speech, and you get the colossal legal, cultural, and moral battle embodied in the seminal Supreme Court case of Hustler Magazine v. Falwell. It all started in late 1983 with a controversial and despicable ad parody of a man and his mother that culminated in an aggressive legal battle between litigants on polar opposites of the moral and legal spectrum. Going behind the text of the Supreme Court decision, this article delves into the history behind the unique circumstances that made the paths of Jerry Falwell and Larry Flynt cross in a way that made Supreme Court history.

Keywords: Free Speech, First Amendment, Supreme Court, Nebraska Lawyer, Nebraska, Falwell, Flynt, pornography, parody, public figure, defamation