## Facts

- The United States filed a libel for forfeiture under the federal customs obscenity statute seeking seizure and destruction of an imported copy of James Joyce’s novel *Ulysses*.
- Random House, Inc., the U.S. publisher and rights holder, imported the book and filed a claim contesting the seizure.
- The parties stipulated that the book itself was part of the record, waived a jury, and submitted cross-motions for a decree, asking the court to decide all issues of law and fact as if after trial.
- The district judge read the entire book and reread the passages the government identified as objectionable.
- The government argued the book was “obscene” within the meaning of the statute because it contained explicit sexual and bodily references.

## Issues

1. Whether *Ulysses* is “obscene” under the federal customs statute such that it may be seized, forfeited, and destroyed.
2. Whether obscenity should be assessed based on isolated passages or the work as a whole, including authorial purpose and the work’s dominant effect on an average adult reader.

## Decision

- The court granted the claimant’s motion to dismiss the libel and denied the government’s motion for forfeiture and destruction.
- The court held that *Ulysses* is not obscene within the meaning of the statute.
- The court evaluated the book as a whole, considered Joyce’s purpose, and assessed the work’s dominant effect on an ordinary, reasonably mature reader.

## Legal Principles

- A claim that a book is obscene requires assessing the work as a whole, not selecting isolated passages divorced from context.
- Obscenity analysis includes consideration of whether the work was written with a pornographic purpose (i.e., to exploit obscenity) or with serious artistic intent.
- The relevant measure is the dominant effect of the complete work on an average adult reader, analogous to a “reasonable person” standard, rather than the reaction of unusually susceptible readers.
- Explicit content may be legally permissible where, in context, it serves a serious literary method and does not have the dominant tendency to stimulate lust.

## Conclusion

The court refused to condemn *Ulysses* as obscene, holding that obscenity under the customs law must be judged by the work’s overall purpose and dominant effect on an average adult reader, and concluding that the novel’s explicit passages did not make the book, taken as a whole, pornographic or lust-provoking.


United States v. One Book Called “Ulysses”, 5 F. Supp. 182 (S.D.N.Y. 1933)