John E. McGeehan (1880–1968) was a lawyer, district attorney, and judge in New York City from 1917 to 1950. McGeehan was born November 17, 1880, on the

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Historically, it w ...

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

to Daniel McGeehan of Wisconsin and Ellen Vaughan of Ireland. He graduated from

Fordham Law School Fordham University School of Law is the law school of Fordham University. The school is located in Manhattan in New York City, and is one of eight ABA-approved law schools in that city. According to Fordham University School of Law's ABA- ...

in 1912, and was appointed a deputy commissioner of the New York City Water Department by Mayor

John Purroy Mitchel John Purroy Mitchel (July 19, 1879 – July 6, 1918) was the 95th mayor of New York, in office from 1914 to 1917. At 34, he was the second-youngest mayor of the city, and was sometimes referred to as the "Boy Mayor of New York". Mitchel won t ...

in 1914. In 1917, Mitchel appointed McGeehan as a city magistrate, and in 1923, McGeehan was elected as a city court judge. The next year, he was elected to the office of

Bronx County District Attorney The Bronx County District Attorney is the elected district attorney for Bronx County, which is coterminous with the Borough of the Bronx, in New York City. The office is responsible for the prosecution of violations of New York state laws. (Feder ...

, a post he held until 1929, when he was elected as a

New York State Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the superior court in the Judiciary of New York. It is vested with unlimited civil and criminal jurisdiction, although in many counties outside New York City it acts primarily as a court of civil ju ...

justice. During his tenure as a justice, he presided over

The Bertrand Russell Case ''The Bertrand Russell Case'', known officially as ''Kay v. Board of Higher Education'', was a case concerning the appointment of Bertrand Russell as Professor of Philosophy of the College of the City of New York, as well as a collection of art ...

and barred him from serving as a professor at the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a Public university, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...

, stating that his appointment would "adversely affect public health, safety, and morals." "It is safe to say that cGeehanwill go down in history as a minor inquisitor who used his one brief moment in the limelight to besmirch and injure a great and honest man." After reaching mandatory retirement age and stepping down from the court bench in 1950, he was appointed as a referee in the

New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York is the intermediate appellate court in New York State. The state is geographically divided into four judicial departments of the Appellate Division. The full title of each is, u ...

. In 1960, he was appointed by federal judge

Sylvester J. Ryan Sylvester J. Ryan (September 10, 1896 – April 10, 1981) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York from 1947 to 1981 and its Chief Judge from 1959 to 1966. Education and career ...

of the

United States District Court for the Southern District of New York The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case citations, S.D.N.Y.) is a federal trial court whose geographic jurisdiction encompasses eight counties of the State of New York. Two of these are in New York Ci ...

as overseer for the $28 million distributed annually by the

American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadc ...

, which he continued to do until his death. He died in Manhattan on May 17, 1968, and is buried in Saint Raymond's Cemetery in

the Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

, New York.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McGeehan, John E. 1880 births 1968 deaths Bronx County district attorneys New York Supreme Court justices Lawyers from the Bronx 20th-century New York state court judges Catholics from New York (state) Burials at Saint Raymond's Cemetery (Bronx)