John M. Woolsey
E775531
John M. Woolsey was a U.S. federal judge best known for his landmark 1933 decision lifting the ban on James Joyce’s novel "Ulysses" and reshaping American obscenity law.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| John M. Woolsey canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T4758032 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: John M. Woolsey Context triple: [United States v. One Book Called Ulysses, judge, John M. Woolsey]
-
A.
John H. Vreeland
John H. Vreeland was an American lawyer and Republican politician from New Jersey who served as a state senator in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
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B.
Charles F. Roos
Charles F. Roos was an American economist and mathematician known for his pioneering work in econometrics and contributions to the formalization of economic theory.
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C.
William M. Conselman
William M. Conselman was an American screenwriter and occasional director best known for his work on early 20th-century Hollywood films and for co-creating the comic strip "Ella Cinders."
-
D.
John W. Richardson
John W. Richardson is a screenwriter best known for co-writing the action thriller film "Non-Stop" starring Liam Neeson.
-
E.
Alden B. Dow
Alden B. Dow was a prominent 20th-century American architect known for his innovative modernist designs and his association with the organic architecture movement.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: John M. Woolsey Target entity description: John M. Woolsey was a U.S. federal judge best known for his landmark 1933 decision lifting the ban on James Joyce’s novel "Ulysses" and reshaping American obscenity law.
-
A.
John H. Vreeland
John H. Vreeland was an American lawyer and Republican politician from New Jersey who served as a state senator in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
-
B.
Charles F. Roos
Charles F. Roos was an American economist and mathematician known for his pioneering work in econometrics and contributions to the formalization of economic theory.
-
C.
William M. Conselman
William M. Conselman was an American screenwriter and occasional director best known for his work on early 20th-century Hollywood films and for co-creating the comic strip "Ella Cinders."
-
D.
John W. Richardson
John W. Richardson is a screenwriter best known for co-writing the action thriller film "Non-Stop" starring Liam Neeson.
-
E.
Alden B. Dow
Alden B. Dow was a prominent 20th-century American architect known for his innovative modernist designs and his association with the organic architecture movement.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (41)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States federal judge
ⓘ
court case ⓘ person ⓘ |
| appointedBy | Herbert Hoover NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
James Joyce
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Random House NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| barAdmission | New York NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| birthDate | 1877-10-15 ⓘ |
| countryOfCitizenship | United States of America ⓘ |
| court | United States District Court for the Southern District of New York NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| deathDate | 1945-03-04 ⓘ |
| education |
Columbia Law School
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Yale University NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| era | 20th-century American judges ⓘ |
| familyName | Woolsey NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| fieldOfWork |
constitutional law
ⓘ
law ⓘ obscenity law ⓘ |
| fullName | John Munro Woolsey NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| givenName | John NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| influenced | subsequent U.S. obscenity jurisprudence ⓘ |
| jurisdiction | Southern District of New York NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| knownFor |
1933 decision lifting the U.S. ban on James Joyce’s novel "Ulysses"
ⓘ
reshaping American obscenity law ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| legalCase | United States v. One Book Called Ulysses (1933) NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| legalPhilosophy | emphasis on literary value and context in obscenity cases ⓘ |
| memberOf | United States District Court for the Southern District of New York NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| notableFor |
helping liberalize U.S. publishing standards for modernist literature
ⓘ
rejecting purely moralistic standards in obscenity analysis ⓘ |
| notableOpinion | artistic and literary merit as a factor in obscenity determinations ⓘ |
| notableWork | United States v. One Book Called Ulysses NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| occupation |
judge
ⓘ
lawyer ⓘ |
| placeOfBirth | Aiken, South Carolina NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| placeOfDeath | New York City ⓘ |
| positionHeld | Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York ⓘ |
| precedentFor | Second Circuit decision affirming legality of "Ulysses" ⓘ |
| presidingJudge | John M. Woolsey NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| significantEvent | Issued opinion in 1933 declaring "Ulysses" not obscene under U.S. law ⓘ |
| subjectOf | James Joyce’s novel "Ulysses" NERFINISHED ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: John M. Woolsey Description of subject: John M. Woolsey was a U.S. federal judge best known for his landmark 1933 decision lifting the ban on James Joyce’s novel "Ulysses" and reshaping American obscenity law.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.