Editing Charles Coughlin (section)

=== 1940 to 1942 ===
[[File:Francis Biddle cph.3b27524 (cropped).jpg|thumb|US Attorney General Biddle]]
In January 1940, the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] (FBI) raided the Brooklyn headquarters for the Christian Front, arresting 17 men on charges of plotting to overthrow the U.S. government. Coughlin then issued a statement, saying that while he was not a member of the Christian Front and disavowed violence, he did not disassociate himself from the group.<ref>{{cite news |date=January 22, 1940 |title=Coughlin Supports Christian Front |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1940/01/22/archives/coughlin-supports-christian-front-while-not-a-member-i-do-not.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210102195059/https://www.nytimes.com/1940/01/22/archives/coughlin-supports-christian-front-while-not-a-member-i-do-not.html |archive-date=January 2, 2021 |access-date=February 18, 2010 |newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Gallagher |first=Charles |title=Nazis of Copley Square: Forgotten stories of the Christian Front |year=2021}}</ref> He called the Front "pro-American, pro-Christian, anti-Communist and anti-Nazi".<ref name="nytjan22">{{cite news |date=January 22, 1940 |title=Coughlin Supports Christian Front |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1940/01/22/94780913.pdf |access-date=January 16, 2014 |newspaper=New York Times}}</ref> The trials for the 17 men ended in acquittals and [[Hung jury|hung juries]], albeit one of the defendants committed suicide.

In the September 23, 1940, issue of ''Social Justice'', Coughlin announced that he was cancelling ''Golden Hour,'' forced "...by those who control circumstances beyond my reach".{{sfn|Marcus|1972|pp=176–177}} Coughlin now had to rely on ''Social Justice'' to reach his followers. In 1940, reversing his previous position, Kennedy attacked Coughlin's [[isolationism]].{{sfn|Smith|2002|pp=122, 171, 379, 502}}{{sfn|Kazin|1995|pp=109, 123}}{{sfn|Brinkley|1983|p=127}} After the December 1941 Japanese [[attack on Pearl Harbor]] and the U.S. declaration of war against the [[Axis powers|Axis Powers]], anti-interventionist movements rapidly lost public support. Isolationists such as Coughlin were tagged as enemy sympathizers.

On April 14, 1942, U.S. Attorney General [[Francis Biddle]] wrote a letter to Postmaster General [[Frank Walker (Jersey politician)|Frank Walker]], suggesting that he revoke the second-class mailing privilege of ''Social Justice''.<ref name="books.google.com">{{cite book|author-link=Leonard Dinnerstein|last=Dinnerstein|first=Leonard|title=Antisemitism in America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mJLHrb-o5E0C&pg=PA132|year=1995|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-531354-3|access-date=February 13, 2016|archive-date=December 29, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191229123043/https://books.google.com/books?id=mJLHrb-o5E0C&pg=PA132|url-status=live}}</ref> Using the [[Espionage Act of 1917]] as its legal justification, Walker temporarily suspended the mailing permit for ''Social Justice'' on April 14.<ref>{{cite news |title= Mails Barred to "Social Justice" |url= https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=19420415&id=SzsNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=DGoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2530,6670133 |newspaper= [[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]] |location= Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |date= April 15, 1942 |pages= 1–2 |accessdate= January 1, 2010 |archive-date= January 21, 2022 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220121103421/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=19420415&id=SzsNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=DGoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2530,6670133 |url-status= live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last= Stone |first= Geoffrey R. |year= 2004 |title= Free Speech in World War II: When are you going to indict the seditionists? |journal=International Journal of Constitutional Law|volume= 2 |issue= 2 |pages= 334–367 |doi= 10.1093/icon/2.2.334 |doi-access= free }}</ref><ref name="timecom1942">{{cite web  | url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,849845,00.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101014180328/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,849845,00.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = October 14, 2010 | title = The Press: Coughlin Quits | date = May 18, 1942 | accessdate = March 13, 2011 |magazine=Time}}</ref> Walker scheduled a hearing on its permanent suspension for April 29, later postponed until May 4.{{sfn|Marcus|1972|pp=209–214, 217}} Unable to mail ''Social Justice'' to its subscribers, Coughlin was confined to distributing it by private delivery trucks only in the Boston area.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Stephen H. |last1=Norwood |author-link=Stephen H. Norwood |journal=American Jewish History |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press |title=Marauding Youth and the Christian Front: Antisemitic Violence in Boston and New York During World War II |date=2003 |volume=91 |issue=2 |pages=233–267 |doi=10.1353/ajh.2004.0055 |jstor=23887201 |s2cid=162237834 }}</ref>

Biddle also convened a [[federal grand jury]] to consider [[sedition]] charges against ''Social Justice'' and Coughlin.{{sfn|Tull|1965|p=235}} Biddle asked banker [[Leo Crowley]], a Roosevelt appointee, to offer a deal to Archbishop Mooney; the [[United States Department of Justice|US Justice Department]] would not prosecute Coughlin if he closed ''Social Justice'' and stopped all his political activities.{{sfn|Marcus|1972|p=216}}

On May 1, Mooney ordered Coughlin to confine himself only to the pastoral duties of the Shrine of the Little Flower. The alternative was his suspension from active ministry and federal indictment. Coughlin complied with Mooney's order and ''Social Justice'' ceased publication. The May 4 hearing before the Postmaster General was canceled.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}