Description of Incident: Before the story was even published, it had been censored of numerous sexual and excretion references by the New York "Little Review," a magazine who was to release it in serial publications. However, in 1920, on three separate occasions, the US Post Office intercepted the magazines and had them burned (At the time they had the right to halt any indecent materials). In particular, the episode "Nausicaa" caused a stir through its heavy, although comic, focus on masturbation. The New York Society for the Suppression of Vice found out about this and brought the owners of the magazine to court, where they were forced to stop printing episodes of "Ulysses."

The trial scared off any potential publishers and printers who saw it as filth, but eventually Joyce had the book released in France. However, Joyce still found resistance to it in English speaking countries. The US Post Office held any copies of the book it found and had them burned. British customs officials also confiscated it and had it sent to the Home Office for examining. In 1922, the Director of Public Prosecution deemed it indecent and ordered that customs not let the book get through to Britain. He made this decision having read only 40 pages.

Results of Incident: Not until 1933 was the ban challenged. US publisher Random House brought the book before a judge who, upon reading the sexual passages, declared, "nowhere does it tend to be an aphrodisiac. Ulysses may, therefore, be admitted into the United States." This decision, made based on effects that the writing has on the average reader, became the new standard by which obscenity was judged in America.