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. Traditionally an im ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. 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. In 2013, 91% of the law school's first-time test tak ...

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, from 1914 to 1917. At 34, he was the second-youngest mayor and he is sometimes referred to as "The Boy Mayor of New York." Mitchel is remembered for his sho ...

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. (Fed ...

, 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 trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...

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 arti ...

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 within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

, 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 Divisions of the Supreme Court of the State of New York are the intermediate appellate courts in New York State. There are four Appellate Divisions, one in each of the state's four Judicial Departments (e.g., the full title of the ...

. In 1960, he was appointed by federal judge Sylvester J. Ryan 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 United States district court, federal trial court whose geographic jurisdiction encompasses eight counties of New York (state), New York ...

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, broadca ...

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

Saint Raymond's Cemetery Saint Raymond's Cemetery is a Roman Catholic cemetery at 2600 Lafayette Avenue in the Throggs Neck and Schuylerville sections of the Bronx, New York City, United States. The cemetery is composed of two separate locations: the older section (main e ...

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, New York.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McGeehan, John E. 1880 births 1968 deaths Bronx County District Attorneys New York Supreme Court Justices People from the Bronx 20th-century American judges Catholics from New York (state) Burials at Saint Raymond's Cemetery (Bronx)