John E. McGeehan (1880–1968) was a lawyer, district attorney, and judge in New York City from 1917 to 1950.
He graduated from Fordham Law School in 1912, and was appointed a deputy commissioner of the New York City Water Department by Mayor John Purroy Mitchel in 1914.
[1] During his tenure as a justice, he presided over The Bertrand Russell Case and barred him from serving as a professor at the City College of New York, stating that his appointment would "adversely affect public health, safety, and morals.
"[1] "It is safe to say that [McGeehan] will 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.
In 1960, he was appointed by federal judge Sylvester J. Ryan of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York as overseer for the $28 million distributed annually by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, which he continued to do until his death.