Former Atlantic Highlands resident Harold Cassidy, cited as one of the Top 100 Lawyers in North America ans well as one of the Top 100 National Trial Lawyers, and Harvard Law School Professor Robert P. George will make a joint Pro-Life presentation Sunday, May 21, at 1:30 p.m. at St. Agnes Church.
The two internationally recognized leaders of law and philosophy will discuss “The Dobbs Decision and the Past, Present and Future of the Pro-Life Cause” in a stimulating conversation at the church hall, co-sponsored by the Our Lady of Perpetual Help -St. Agnes Parish and Catholic Vote, a Wisconsin-based conservative, non-profit political advocacy group.
The Dobbs Decision was the recent decision by the US Supreme Court which overruled Roe v Wade of 1973, as well as Planned Parenthood vs. Casey. The decision returned to the states the power to regulate any aspect of abortion not protected by federal law.
A reception will follow the presentation.
Cassidy, now a resident of Ocean Township, was a parishioner at St. Agnes when living in the borough and has been practicing law for 47 years, successfully litigating numerous precedent-setting cases not only in criminal and commercial law, but also in the rights of pregnant mothers and their children.
Among his precedent setting successes are the establishment of the right of the accused to have independent legal counsel, the state Supreme Court decision which struck down state fees imposed on Federal agencies in violation of federal law, and the only ruling in the nation that has held an abortion kills a human being.
Cassidy was a member of the legal team which gained freedom for Rubin “Hurricane’ Carter when the professional boxer had been wrongfully convicted of triple murder. That litigation took 19 years until Cassidy was successful in having Carter freed.
The attorney is probably best known locally for the 2009 Baby M decision which influenced the development of new law throughout the world. He successfully litigated a gestational surrogacy case and secured a decision that determined a woman carrying a child was the legal mother, in the case that dispute the birth mother’s rights against a surrogate parenting contract. Cassidy’s success led to the court finding such a contract is illegal and unenforceable as well as exploitive of women.
His litigation has added a new dynamic in the national debate on abortion and the rights of pregnant mothers which are destroyed by abortion. His work has even gained the respect of Mother Jones, the radical liberal magazine, which pointed out that he is “in the forefront of the pro-life movement’s biggest rebranding…”
Cassidy was named a member of the New Jersey Bioethics Commission and was named Person of the Week for his law achievements by ABC World News. He currently devotes a large part of his practice to protecting the rights of pregnant mothers against abortion providers who have violated their rights or subjected them to procedures without proper informed voluntary consent.
As highly recognized and respected in law as Cassidy is, Professor George is highly acclaimed in jurisprudence as Director of the James Madison Program at Princeton University, as well as a visiting professor at Harvard Law School. He has also served as Chairman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, on the President’s Council on Bioethics, appointed by the President to the US Commission onf Civil Rights and is a member of UNESCO’s World Commission on the Ethics of Science and Technology. He received the Justice Tom C. Clark award as a former Judicial Fellow at the US Supreme Court.
A prolific writer, Professor George is the author of several books published by Oxford University Press and Princeton and Cambridge University Press, as well as numerous articles and essays which have appeared in leading newspapers and law review journals. He holds 22 honorary degrees, with doctorates in law, letters, ethics, science, divinity humane laws, civil law and moral values, as well as a the humanities and juridical science. His awards include the US Presidential Citizens Medal, the Honorific Medal for the Defense of Human Rights of the Republic of Poland, the Philip Merrill Award, the Paul Bator Ward of the Federalist Society, the Sidney Hook, Silver Gavel Award, and numerous other citations. He is considered one of the leading natural law theorists in the world.
