Free Answering Brief in Opposition - District Court of Delaware - Delaware

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Published: Dec 13, 2003 - 11:06:55 PM EDT

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Big targets suit Del. lawyer
By Tom Eldred, Delaware State News WILMINGTON Attorney Thomas Stephen Neuberger isn't making life any easier for Gov. Ruth Ann Minner and her top law enforcement selections this year as he litigates various lawsuits Wilmington attorney Thomas S. filed against state Neuberger has battled - and beaten officials. some large targets in court, including Delaware State Police Superintendent It's not the first time Col. L. Aaron Chaffinch and baseball's the Delaware native Cincinnati Reds. Delaware State has taken on high- News/Doug Curran profile adversaries in his effort to protect the civil rights of the "little guys,'' as he calls them. "The little guy needs somebody, too,'' he said in a recent interview. "Our main point is that we fight for the little guy, often against the big guy. I'm always willing to go to bat for the little guy.'' The "big guys'' that have come up against Mr. Neuberger have ranged from the superintendent of the Delaware State Police to the Cincinnati Reds baseball team to the president of the United States. Many battlefronts A solo practitioner in Wilmington, Mr. Neuberger successfully litigated a lawsuit in federal court this year against state police

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Superintendent Col. L. Aaron Chaffinch on behalf of a trooper who claimed the colonel violated his constitutional right to free speech. He wound up with a $243,000 settlement agreement paid in full by the state. Two more claims against Col. Chaffinch and others, including a rare suit filed by a state police captain, are in Mr. Neuberger's federal court pipeline. He's also representing a woman who is suing the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington and its bishop, and he's aiming his legal talents at top New Castle County government officials in a job discrimination lawsuit filed by two former county workers. He's fought court battles against the DuPont Co. and the University of Delaware. He's battled on behalf of Sussex County Sheriff Robert Reed in a lawsuit against the state over the sheriff's law enforcement powers. In 1986, he took time out to run as the Republican challenger against then-Rep. Thomas R. Carper for Delaware's lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Rep. Carper, a Democrat, won easily. He later served two terms as governor and is now one of Delaware's two U.S. senators. Asked why he ran against the popular incumbent Democrat, Mr. Neuberger said, "Somebody had to run. The people had to have a choice. It was a fair election. We took the high road.'' No boot kissing Whether litigating against a high-profile adversary in court or taking on a heavily favored political opponent, Mr. Neuberger's philosophy remains essentially the same. "Delaware is a small state,'' he said. "There are a lot of big fish here in a small pond. A lot of people are afraid to take on some of those fish. But I'm 56 now and I have no intention of changing. I'll never kiss anybody's boot." The boot reference comes from a story Mr. Neuberger tells of his blue-collar family history. "My grandfather was a miner in the coal fields of Pennsylvania,'' he said. "But he was born in what was then Austria-Hungary. He was a shoemaker. "Some landowner wanted him to kiss his boot. He refused. He came over to the New World instead. I've got that kind of blood. We don't mind standing up for the little guy and challenging the powers that be.''

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Not kissing anybody's boot seemed a natural fit with the civil rights promised in the U.S. Constitution. After earning his law degree in 1974 from Georgetown University, where he edited the law journal, Mr. Neuberger joined the Wilmington law firm of Bader, Dorsey and Kreshtool. "They were sort of the civil rights law firm at the time in Delaware,'' he said. "I had clerked in D.C. for a federal judge during the whole Watergate thing. I got exposed to a lot of highpowered stuff.'' In other words, "big fish." An early case pitted him against the University of Delaware. As a civil rights lawyer working with the Delaware chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, he took the side of a group of Catholic students when the university tried to prohibit them from using school dormitories for religious worship. "Here I am right out of law school and we won the case,'' he said. "We established the rights of these kids to have church services in the common areas of their dorms.'' Other cases followed. Many focused on individual civil rights. In keeping with his goals and personal philosophy, he joined the Center for Law and Religious Freedom. William T. Quillen, a former state Superior Court judge, Supreme Court justice and secretary of state, recalled Mr. Neuberger's court demeanor. "If you need a civil rights lawyer in Delaware, he's the one you would go to,'' Mr. Quillen said. "Unbeknownst to him, I actually recommended somebody to him recently. "He's a seasoned lawyer and he behaves like one. He's well prepared and he's respectful to the court. Unlike some 'cause' lawyers, he's professional and behaves accordingly.'' Faith plays a role By 1981 Mr. Neuberger had opened his own law practice. His religious convictions, already firmly in place, melded with his maturing legal career. "I was raised a Catholic but in 1974 I had a personal experience with Jesus Christ,'' he said. "I'm a Pentecostal now. I attend the First Assembly of God in Wilmington. I truly believe everything I have is a gift.''

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His religious affiliation and his devotion to individual rights led him to the Rutherford Institute, a Virginia-based conservative nonprofit legal and educational organization specializing in the defense of religious liberty and human rights. He's on the institute's board of directors and has been affiliated for a generation. Institute founder John Whitehead said he considers Mr. Neuberger a good friend and an excellent attorney. "Tom has been a real strong supporter of my work for a long time,'' Mr. Whitehead said. "He's the best lawyer I know. He's my lawyer. I can call him when I need help. When I have a problem. It's Tom I talk to. "There's a great moral strength to his life and work. He tells the truth. He's got a lot of courage and he's very bright. He's been a friend of mine for 26 years.'' Mr. Whitehead described his colleague as a "civil libertarian" drawn to those whose rights have been violated. "He subscribes to the idea that if you see the plight of someone who is down, you go and help them,'' Mr. Whitehead said. Paula Jones case The relationship with the Rutherford Institute brought Mr. Neuberger in contact with one of the most notorious cases of his career. "The institute had taken up the Paula Jones case against President Bill Clinton,'' Mr. Neuberger said. "It's about the supremacy of law. It holds that nobody - be it Clinton or Chaffinch or Minner - is above the law.'' Ms. Jones had sued President Clinton, claiming he sexually harassed her and exposed himself to her in 1991 in a Little Rock hotel room while he was governor of Arkansas. By 1998, the Rutherford Institute was involved, backing Ms. Jones with legal costs and attorneys. When President Clinton's lawyer, Robert S. Bennett, tried to subpoena the institute's financial records after calling the group an "extremist organization," Mr. Neuberger was called in. "I shoved it right back in Bob Bennett's face,'' he said. "We got them to back down and abandon that pursuit.'' An Associated Press story at the time quoted Mr. Neuberger saying that if Mr. Bennett "wants to play hardball, we can play

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hardball. I'm no wussy.'' Ms. Jones agreed to drop her lawsuit late in 1998 in return for an $850,000 payoff. The deal agreed that no apology or admission of guilt would come from President Clinton. Matters of rights Mr. Neuberger took on the Cincinnati Reds baseball team in the early 1990s for a client who was ejected from the World Series for displaying a religious sign. "Here was this poor, itinerant evangelist behind home plate with a sign quoting some verse and book from the Bible,'' Mr. Neuberger said. "They had him thrown out of the stadium. We sued the county and the Cincinnati Reds and we won. We got $20,000 in legal fees and an agreement they wouldn't do that stuff anymore.'' In 1995 he and the Rutherford Institute teamed with Jerry Falwell's Liberty University to win a lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The NCAA had a rule that levied a 15-yard penalty when college football players knelt down to pray in the end zone after scoring a touchdown. "The NCAA backed down on that,'' Mr. Neuberger said. "They agreed to completely get rid of the 15-yard penalty.'' In another sign case, he won against the World Cup soccer organization when the group tried to prevent a fan from displaying a "free Bosnia'' placard at a game. "We got the sign back up for the client,'' he said. "But now I understand they're putting something about restricting signs right on their tickets. They don't seem to have learned their lesson. We're looking at that one now.'' A more recent victory came - again with the Rutheford Institute - in the case of Lt. Col. Martha McSally, one of the first seven women to train as fighter pilots in the U.S. Air Force and the first woman ever to fly in combat. Col. McSally challenged the military's policy of forcing servicewomen stationed in Saudi Arabia to wear Muslim "abayas'' - black, head-to-toe robes - when off base as part of the military's effort to conform with Saudi culture. "This was a religion issue and a woman's rights issue,'' Mr. Neuberger said. "It wasn't done during the Gulf War but a decision that came later in some kind of effort to suck up to the Saudis.''

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In a lawsuit naming Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Mr. Neuberger and his fellow lawyers at the Rutherford Institute took on the Department of Defense, and won. "The government caved in,'' he said. "The Senate voted unanimously in 2002 for an amendment prohibiting this demeaning statute and so did the House. We put it in the defense authorization bill this year so the president couldn't veto it. That was a fun case.'' Mr. Neuberger lives in Wilmington. He's married to Judy, his "childhood sweetheart,'' whom he's known since the fifth grade. The couple, married 35 years, have two children, Stephen, 25, and Deborah Kirk, 28. Dr. Kirk is a family physician practicing in Dover. Stephen Neuberger is also a lawyer. He is to be admitted to the Delaware Bar on Monday and will officially join his dad's legal practice. Will the shingle read Neuberger and Neuberger from Monday on? "Not right now,'' the senior practitioner laughed. "He's got to earn it first.'' Senior writer Tom Eldred can be reached at 741-8212 or [email protected].

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1/24/2007