When Priests Become Predators, Profiles of Childhood Sexual Abuse Survivors: An Interview with Tom Neuberger

For nearly 40 years, Tom Neuberger has been a legal gadfly, challenging the powers that be and fighting for the “little guy” in the court system and the media. Although raised a devout Catholic and having received nearly all of his schooling in that educational system, Tom has spent the twilight of his career seeking justice on behalf of those who were betrayed by the very institution which played such a key part in his education and upbringing.

Born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware, Tom received his secondary, college and legal education at pillars of the Catholic school system on the East Coast ‑ Salesianum High School in Wilmington, St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, and Georgetown Law School in Washington, D.C. After clerking for a federal judge, Tom returned to Delaware and embarked on what turned out to be a fascinating and wide ranging legal career.

He has battled censorship in public venues, challenging the actions of the Cincinnati Reds to ban the sign “John 3:16”at the World Series and the World Cup’s removal of “Save Bosnia” signs at the height of the genocide there. He dueled with the NCAA, forcing it to rescind its penalties and ban on football players taking a knee to say a quick prayer after scoring a touchdown and fought for the rights of students to pray on public university property. He has represented female high school coaches as they sought equal pay with their male counterparts and sued the Pentagon to end the requirement that on duty female Air Force officers wear a burqua when traveling off-base on official military business in Saudi Arabia. He also forced the Pentagon to rescind its discipline of a decorated airman who was punished after publicly criticizing the military’s tainted anthrax vaccination program. He has battled for the rights of attorneys and civil rights organizations to be free of retaliation for speaking out and taking on unpopular causes and even beat back the efforts of the President of the United States to discover the membership lists of one such organization. He has sued more police and public agencies than he cares to remember, exposing wide ranging cronyism, corrup...

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