Research Fellow
Thomas Berry is a research fellow in the Cato Institute’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies and managing editor of the
Cato Supreme Court Review. Before joining Cato, he was an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation and clerked for Judge E. Grady Jolly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. His academic work has appeared in
NYU Journal of Law and Liberty,
Washington and Lee Law Review Online, and
Federalist Society Review. His popular writing has appeared in
The Wall Street Journal,
National Law Journal,
National Review Online, and
The Hill Online. He has testified before the U.S. Senate, and his work has been cited by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Club 519 in Greenville sues Governor Cooper over continued shutdown Club 519 (Source: WITN) By Dave Jordan | December 22, 2020 at 5:01 AM EST - Updated December 22 at 5:01 AM
GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) -The owners of Club 519 in Greenville filed a lawsuit Monday challenging Gov. Roy Cooperâs shutdown orders, calling them discriminatory and unconstitutional.
âThe governorâs executive orders allowed bars in restaurants and hotels â as well as bottle shops, breweries, cideries, distilleries, meaderies, and wineries â to reopen in May, yet Club 519 is still closed,â said Jessica Thompson, an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation. Fortunately for the Waldrons, the North Carolina Constitution prohibits this unequal burden on the fundamental right to earn a living and guarantees the separation of powers in the state.â
Promoting Accountability: State and Federal Officials Shouldn’t Be Above the Law Getty/Raymond Boyd
Sam Hananel
Introduction and summary
This summer, Black Lives Matter protests opposing police brutality and systemic racism swept the nation. The federal government’s use of federal troops to violently quell these protests illustrated two legal doctrines in pressing need of reform qualified immunity and
Bivens liability. As courts over the years have expanded qualified immunity and narrowed
Bivens liability, these two doctrines now provide state and federal government officials near-total protection against personal liability for unlawful and abusive actions they take when carrying out their duties.
December 17, 2020
In Lewis Carroll’s classic “Through the Looking Glass,” Humpty Dumpty says to the befuddled protagonist, Alice, “When I use a word … it means just what I choose it to mean neither more nor less.” Humpty Dumpty’s theory of linguistics has invaded landmark preservation, which is just one of the compelling reasons the Supreme Court must wade into the waters of historic preservation at sea.
Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association v. Ross, a pending cert petition filed by my colleagues at Pacific Legal Foundation, asks the justices to resolve a curious circuit court split to clarify that the ocean is not land, up is not down, and words have meaning.