House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) spent the early years of his career advocating for and defending Christian speech and activities in public elementary schools and universities. He served as a senior attorney for Alliance Defending Freedom, an evangelical legal group focused on promoting religious rights. In his role at Alliance Defending Freedom, he repeatedly challenged the separation of church and state, often by representing schools that were accused of promoting Christianity on their campuses.
An example of this occurred in 2004 when Johnson represented Stockwell Place Elementary, a Bossier Parish public school that was sued by a group of Jewish parents. The parents objected to a number of religious practices in the school, including prayer sessions, the teaching of religious songs, and a teacher-led prayer group called Stallions for Christ. These practices led to bullying and ridicule of the Jewish students, which was defended by school officials. Johnson actively warned that these types of cases threatened the freedom to express religious beliefs. He spoke about the case at church, label just the actions from the parents and the ACLU as anti-religious, and consistently defended those actions in court from a First Amendment rights perspective.
Johnson continued to advocate against religious suppression through a series of cases, including representing parents in a lawsuit against the Katy Independent School District (Texas) and two cases involving students being denied transportation to religious events. He also made arguments in defense of religious speech on public university campuses. Throughout his career as an attorney before coming to Congress, Johnson was a passionate advocate for the protection of religious expression in public schools and universities. His work at Alliance Defending Freedom ultimately shaped his legacy as an attorney and led directly to the concerns some have about separation of church and state.
