Essay Archive - Jerry Falwell vs. Hustler Magazine
Jerry Falwell vs. Hustler Magazine
The respondent, Jerry Falwell, a nationally known minister and
commentator of politics, filed a diversity action in Federal District Court
against the petitioners, Hustler Magazine, Inc., a nationally circulated
magazine and its publisher, to recover damages for, inter alia, libel and
in intentional infliction of emotional distress arising from the
publication of a parody that portrayed Falwell as having had a drunken
incestuous rendezvous with his mother in an outhouse. The jury found
against Falwell on the libel claim specifically because the parody couldn't
“reasonably be u....
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