WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court announced Monday it will not hear arguments in a case brought by the publishers of Hustler Magazine which published ten decades-old nude photographs of a woman after she was murdered by her professional wrestler husband.
Last year, a three judge appellate court ruled that the magazine did not have the right to publish its two-page spread in violation of Georgia’s privacy laws. Monday’s decision by the high court effectively affirms that ruling.
Nancy Benoit’s death made national headlines in June 2007 when she and her son were killed by professional wrestler Christopher Benoit who then committed suicide. The skin magazine published its piece in March 2008.
The Atlanta-based Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the nude photographs taken from a 20 year-old videotape were not appropriate for publication. It ruled that the existence of nude pictures was not of news value and the accompanying biographical text in the magazine didn’t make it a “newsworthy article.”
In their petition to the Supreme Court, lawyers for the magazine blasted the ruling saying it was “premised on the faulty notion that the First Amendment right to publish need be weighed against community morals.”
Nancy Benoit’s mother, Maureen Toffoloni, asked the justices to leave the lower court ruling in place. Her lawyers told the Court the judges below did their job in carefully reviewing the facts and balancing whether the photographs were a matter of legitimate public concern. They praised the judges for determining that there was “no connection between a newsworthy event and the nude pictorial…”
The justices, as is custom, offered no reason for why they refused to take the case.