WASHINGTON, D.C. — Despite complaints by members of the U.S. Congress to stop receiving Hustler magazine in the mail, the porn just keeps on coming.
The National Journal reported that 535 congressional offices have been getting Larry Flynt’s flagship magazine since 1983.
In 1984, 264 congressional offices petitioned the U.S. Postal Service to ask the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to stop the mailings, but after two years the court ruled that getting the mag would not “unduly burden a member of Congress” and they’re not forced to read the publication nor any other bulk mail. The court wrote: “We cannot imagine that Congressional offices all lack wastebaskets.”
The report said that after 30 years, the original 535 subscriptions still land on politicians' desks.
As far back as 2006, lawmakers have voiced their objections to Hustler. "It's insulting behavior on the part of the publisher, but not surprising," said Utah Democrat Rep. Jim Matheson.
Not all on the Hill balk at Hustler, however. Some told the Journal they let interns open the brown envelopes and watch as they cringe, while others collected a pile of copies and sent them off to a back room colleague in the daily delivery of mail.
One woman received a year’s supply of the magazines and shipped them to her military boyfriend in Iraq.
Government or not, it’s just business as usual for Flynt’s empire. Hustler spokesperson Arthur Sando told the Journal, "We assume, at this point, that staff members are either reading it or tossing it."
