John M. Woolsey

John M. Woolsey (January 3, 1877–May 4, 1945) was a federal judge in New York City.

Woolsey attended Phillips Academy, Yale University and Columbia Law School. He practiced as a lawyer in New York from 1901 to 1929.

In 1929, President Herbert Hoover appointed Woolsey as a judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Woolsey served as an active judge until taking what is now referred to as senior status in 1943.

Woolsey's best-known decision was his 1933 ruling in "United States v. One Book Called Ulysses" that James Joyce's novel "Ulysses" was not obscene and could lawfully be imported into the United States. This decision, which came about in a test case engineered by Bennett Cerf of Random House, was affirmed by a 2-1 vote of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in an opinion by Judge Augustus N. Hand. Because Cerf reprinted Woolsey's opinion in all copies of "Ulysses" published by his firm, the opinion has been said to be the most widely distributed judicial opinion in history.

References

*Younger, Irving, "Ulysses in Court: The Litigation Surrounding the First Publication of James Joyce's Novel in the United States"' (Professional Education Group transcript of Younger speech)