Southern Baptist, Liberty University professor: 5 interesting facts about House Speaker Mike Johnson

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Friday, October 27, 2023

Conservative law firms

Mike Johnson has worked with multiple high-profile conservative law firms during his career as an attorney, including the First Liberty Institute and the Alliance Defending Freedom.

In 2010, when the ADF was still known as the Alliance Defense Fund, Johnson championed an effort on the part of the organization to remind officials that it was constitutionally acceptable to participate in the annual National Day of Prayer observance.

“America’s founders participated in public prayer activities; public officials today should be able to do the same,” said Johnson, who was serving as senior legal counsel with ADF at the time, in a statement released in 2010.

“Local observances of the National Day of Prayer are both lawful and appropriate, particularly since the event simply provides an opportunity for all Americans to pray voluntarily according to their own faith — and does not promote any particular religion or form of religious observance.”

While a student at the Paul M. Hebert Law Center of Louisiana State University in the 1990s, Johnson served as president of the Christian Legal Society and later founded a law firm known as Freedom Guard.