Larry Flynt

Larry Claxton Flynt, Jr. (born November 1, 1942) is the head of Larry Flynt Publications (LFP), producing over twenty pornographic magazines, including Hustler with an annual turnover of around $150 million. He took part in several legal battles involving the First Amendment. He suffers from bipolar disorder and is paralyzed from the waist down after an assassination attempt.

Legal battles

Flynt was embroiled in many legal battles regarding the regulation of pornography vs. free speech within the United States, especially attacking the Miller v. California (1973) obscenity exception to the First Amendment. He was first prosecuted on obscenity and organized crime charges in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1976 at the behest of Charles H. Keating Jr., who headed a local anti-pornography committee. He was sentenced to 7 to 25 years and served six days; the sentence was overturned on a technicality. One argument resulting from this case went up to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1981 (Larry Flynt v. Ohio, 451 U.S. 619).

Related Topics:
Pornography - Free speech - Miller v. California - 1973 - Obscenity - First Amendment - Cincinnati, Ohio - 1976 - Charles H. Keating Jr. - U.S. Supreme Court - 1981

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Because of a derogatory cartoon published in Hustler in 1976, Kathy Keeton, then girlfriend of Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione, filed a libel suit against Flynt. Her suit in Ohio was eventually dismissed as she missed the statute of limitations. She then filed in New Hampshire, where Hustler's sales were minimal. The question whether she could sue there anyway reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 1983. Flynt lost the case. (Keeton v. Hustler, 465 U.S. 770). During the proceedings, he shouted "Fuck this court!" and called the justices "nothing but eight assholes and a token cunt". Chief justice Warren E. Burger had him arrested for contempt of court but the charge was later dismissed.

Related Topics:
1976 - Kathy Keeton - Penthouse - Bob Guccione - Libel - New Hampshire - 1983 - Warren E. Burger

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Also in 1983, during a trial about his refusal to disclose the source of surveillance tapes potentially embarrassing to the FBI, he wore an American flag as a diaper and was subsequently jailed for six months for desecration of the flag.

Related Topics:
1983 - FBI

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Larry Flynt won a landmark Supreme Court decision on February 24, 1988 (Hustler v. Falwell, 485 U.S. 46), after having been sued by Jerry Falwell in 1983 over an offensive ad parody in Hustler that featured Falwell. The decision clarified that public figures cannot recover damages for "intentional infliction of emotional distress" based on parodies.

Related Topics:
February 24 - 1988 - ''Hustler v. Falwell, 485 U.S. 46'' - Jerry Falwell - 1983

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In April 1998 he was charged with a number of obscenity related charges concerning the sting sale of sex videos to a youth in a Cincinnati adult store owned by Flynt. In a plea agreement in 1999 LFP, Inc. (Flynt's corporate holdings group) pleaded guilty to two counts of pandering obscenity and agreed to stop selling adult videos in Cincinnati.

Related Topics:
1998 - Sting - 1999

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In June of 2003 Hamilton County, Ohio prosecutors attempted to revive criminal charges of pandering obscene material against Flynt and his brother Jimmy. Prosecutors charged that Flynt and his brother had violated the 1999 agreement. Larry Flynt claimed that he no longer had a vested interest in the Hustler Shops and that prosecutors had no basis for charging him with pandering obscene material.

Related Topics:
June - Hamilton County, Ohio - 1999

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