Larry Flynt, Porn Magnate and First Amendment Advocate, Dead at 78

Larry Flynt, the porn tycoon and unlikely First Amendment champion, died Wednesday in Los Angeles of heart failure, according to TMZ. He was 78. Flynt founded Hustler magazine in 1974, known for its lewd pictures and crude takes, which spun off into a media empire. The magazine’s jabs at notorious evangelical preacher Jerry Falwell wound up resulting in a landmark Supreme Court case, Hustler v. Falwell, where the court ruled unanimously that freedom of speech protections extended to intentionally offensive parodies of public figures. While a 1978 murder attempt left Flynt wheelchair-bound for the remainder of his life, he remained provocative until the end: in 2019, Hustler sent Republican congressmen Christmas Cards depicting the assassination of then-President Trump. Divorced four times, Flynt is survived by his wife, Elizabeth, as well as four children and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He is preceded in death by his daughter, Lisa.

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