Lerner v. Casey

While I am not unmindful of the public interest to be served by ridding government of the subversive and the security risk, I cannot join in the court’s decision, for, in my view, the appellant’s discharge from his job of subway conductor was effected in disregard of the applicable statute and in violation of constitutional right.

The Security Risk Law was enacted in 1951, as a temporary emergency measure (L. 1951, ch. 233), in response to the Communist aggression in Korea the year before (§ 1). In substance, it authorizes “ Any public officer, board, body or commission of the state or of any…