Law Schools

New House Speaker Mike Johnson Once Ran A Law School... That Never Opened... And That's The LEAST Of Its Problems

Mike Johnson tried to build a law school named after a judge at the center of multiple sex abuse claims.

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capitol buildingThanks to agent of God Matt Gaetz, Mike Johnson is the new Speaker of the House. Johnson has a lot of thoughts on “the law.” He once suggested that marriage equality would result in people marrying their pets and asked a congressional witness to opine on whether or not it was legal to “abort” a 16-year-old.

No, seriously that’s something this man was actually stupid enough to ask out loud.

But did you know he used to run a law school!

Or… not. As it turns out the much-ballyhooed Louisiana College (now Louisiana Christian College) Judge Paul Pressler School of Law never ended up opening under Johnson’s crackerjack leadership.

Who’s Judge Paul Pressler, you might ask? GLAD YOU DID!

In recent sworn testimony, [anti-LGBTQ+ activist and Pressler law firm partner Jared] Woodfill said he’d known since 2004 of an allegation that Pressler had sexually abused a child. Woodfill learned of those claims, he said, during mediation of an assault lawsuit filed against Pressler that he helped quietly settle for nearly a half-million dollars at the time. Despite his knowledge of the accusation, Woodfill continued to work with Pressler for nearly a decade — leaning on Pressler’s name and reputation to bolster their firm, Woodfill & Pressler LLP.

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Most law schools have to wait a 100 years or so before they get shamed by their namesakes.

Aside from being a judge, Pressler occupied a leading role in converting the Southern Baptist Convention to hardcore conservatism in the 1970s. And if you aren’t familiar with how wild the 70s were for Baptists politically, the Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution advocating the legalization of abortion in 1971. (Pro)Life comes at you fast.

Hence the law school naming rights. As then-Louisiana College President Joe Aguillard said at the time:

“I have been asked over and over again, ‘Why a law school?’” the college’s president, Joe Aguillard, said at an Aug. 16 news conference at the Pineville campus.

And: “Why a Christian law school?”

While Aguillard quoted such founding fathers of the nation as George Washington, John Adams and John Jay to answer the question, U.S. Rep. Rodney Alexander, R.-Quitman, La., underscored the need in practical terms.

Judiciary action is causing the Lord’s Prayer and the Ten Commandants to be removed from many of the nation’s schools “and in their place we are putting metal detectors –- to keep our children from killing each other,” Alexander said.

“‘Are we in trouble?’ one might ask,” Alexander said. “I fear the answer is yes. Thank you, Dr. Aguillard, for recognizing the need….”

Well, post-Kennedy now I guess we’ll see if it was really the Establishment Clause or the glut of guns and ammo that brought in all those metal detectors.

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Anyway, you’d be forgiven for not knowing — since he doesn’t seem to put it on any of his official resumes — but Mike Johnson served as the skipper of this doomed venture. From the contemporaneous coverage of the Baptist Press:

Mike Johnson, former chairman of the college’s board of trustees and a Pineville attorney, said the idea for a law school dates back to 1999 but the college’s current administration has moved it toward being more than a concept.

[UPDATE: As it happens, THE Mike Johnson “former chair of the college’s board of trustees” quoted above is not the same as the dean of the proposed law school who is now-SPEAKER Mike Johnson. Apparently Mike Johnson was a super popular name in Louisiana College circles and the former chair of the board of trustees is not the same as our Speaker who was the proposed leader of the law school]

Don’t worry, it will be very much less than a concept soon enough. From Baptist News Global in 2023:

In December 2011, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools placed LC on warning status for significant non-compliance with multiple standards of accreditation. Additionally, in June 2012, SACS denied an ascent from Level III to Level V accreditation that would allow the proposed law school to confer degrees. In its report, SACS noted LC “did not provide an acceptable plan and supporting documentation to ensure that it has the capability to comply” with the standards of note.

Seeing the writing on the wall, Johnson resigned as dean in August. In his resignation letter to Aguillard, Johnson wrote that the SACS denial of an accreditation level increase negatively impacted fundraising and the recruitment of quality faculty and students, and that the college’s warning status meant approval likely would not be forthcoming.

A law school founded upon a bald-faced rejection of constitutional law had accreditation issues? Shocking.

I get why Johnson is reticent to publicly acknowledge his run as the head of a law school tainted by allegations of sexual abuse. But he’s the leader of the House GOP now… I mean, Jim Jordan isn’t going to tell anybody.

New speaker of the House once led never-opened Paul Pressler School of Law [Baptist News Global]
College launches Pressler law school [Baptist Press]

HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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