American Irish Organization Protests Against Cassidy’s Admission to the Bar

The American Irish Defense Association through William M. Agar, its director, today wrote Messrs. Lewis, Rudden and Hamilton, members of the Brooklyn Character Committee, asking them to refuse to admit John F. Cassidy, Brooklyn Christian Front Leader, to the Bar in Brooklyn.

“As an organization dedicated to the great fight against racial prejudice and class hatred, which is this war, and to the defense of the American way against all enemies, without or within, we respectfully submit that Mr. Cassidy’s record clearly demonstrates his utter unfitness for the post of confidence and honor to which he so brazenly aspires,” the petition said. It added that “A flat rejection of Mr. Cassidy’s impertinent application would serve notice to like-minded subversives that American laws and institutions may not lightly be held up to ridicule and scorn by malicious and reckless demagogues.”

Amongst the members of the Executive Committee of the American Irish Defense Association are Edward J. Flynn, chairman of the Democratic National Committee; General John F. O’Ryan; Msgr. John A. Ryan of Washington; Rev. Vincent A. Brown of Long Beach, L.I.; Msgr. Joseph L. O’Brien of South Caroline and Jeremiah T. Mahoney, former Justice of the Supreme Court of New York.