Michael Berry is the Chief of Staff for First Liberty Institute. He joined First Liberty in 2013 after serving for seven years on active duty as an attorney with the U.S. Marine Corps. Among Mr. Berry’s numerous positions within the Marine Corps, he deployed to Afghanistan in 2008, and from 2009-2012, Mr. Berry served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the United States Naval Academy. Mr. Berry continues to serve as a member of the Marine Corps Reserve, and in 2017 he graduated from Command and Staff College where he was named a Distinguished Graduate.
As Chief of Staff for First Liberty Institute, Mr. Berry has participated in some of the nation’s most high-profile religious liberty cases. As a recognized subject-matter expert on religious liberty within the military, Mr. Berry has testified before Congress and he is routinely invited to speak across the nation about matters affecting religious freedom within the military. Mr. Berry has been featured in numerous media outlets including Fox News, TIME, Good Morning America, Washington Post, Dallas Morning News, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and Houston Chronicle, among many others.
Mr. Berry earned his bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University, and he earned his law degree from The Ohio State University.
Publications
News
By: Mike Berry, Deputy General Counsel and Director of Military Affairs for First Liberty Institute The Supreme Court decided last week to not review the case of Joe Kennedy, a Washington state football coach who was fired for praying with his players. But the game isn’t over yet. We have reason to believe the Supreme Court mightRead full article »
By: Mike Berry, Deputy General Counsel and director of military affairs for First Liberty Institute An anti-religion group is seeking to ban U.S. Air Force members from using their “duty day” to volunteer for the Salvation Army’s food distribution efforts over Christmas. The Christian Salvation Army, whose unofficial motto is “doing the most good,” serves communities throughRead full article »
By Mike Berry, Deputy General Counsel and Director of Military Affairs at First Liberty It is said that the passage of time can heal all wounds — but when wounds heal, we still want to remember the important battles in which they were inflicted. So we build memorials and create ceremonies and traditions. We setRead full article »
By Mike Berry, First Liberty Institute Deputy General Counsel and Director of Military Affairs An Army chaplain and his assistant may be disciplined for following his denomination’s rules while accommodating a same-sex couple. In my 16 years in the U.S. Marine Corps, both on active duty and now in the reserve, I have had theRead full article »
By Mike Berry, First Liberty Institute Deputy General Counsel and Deputy General Counsel and Director of Military Affairs and Neal Mehrotra, First Liberty Legal Intern. Originally published in Townhall July 24, 2018. "Did I break the law?" That was the heart-breaking first question Konnor McKay asked us after an out-of-state group of agitators sent aRead full article »
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