- Mike Johnson labored with a Louisiana school to reduce fallout over his resignation as a regulation faculty dean, per WaPo.
- The varsity in query, the Decide Paul Pressler Faculty of Regulation, by no means opened regardless of hundreds of thousands spent to take action.
- Johnson stepped down from his put up after a essential feasibility examine provided no actual roadmap for the varsity to open.
About 15 years in the past, plans for a non-public Christian regulation faculty in Louisiana have been set in movement, with Louisiana School spending $5 million to buy and renovate a constructing to accommodate the establishment.
Now-Home Speaker Mike Johnson, who in 2010 was a younger Louisiana legal professional seeking to make his mark in his dwelling area, grew to become the “inaugural dean” of the Decide Paul Pressler Faculty of Regulation. The deliberate regulation faculty was touted by its boosters as one that might “unashamedly embrace” a “biblical worldview.”
However the regulation faculty — which might have been a part of Louisiana School, a Southern Baptist establishment in Pineville — by no means opened its doorways, even after the multimillion-dollar bills that have been racked up in preparation for courses. (Louisiana School was renamed Louisiana Christian College in 2021.)
After stepping down because the regulation faculty’s dean in 2012, Johnson privately labored with Louisiana School officers to melt any fallout from his departure, in keeping with The Washington Submit.
In Johnson’s resignation letter, he wrote that “our palms are presently tied” concerning the push to safe funding in help of the regulation faculty.
In line with an inner memo obtained by The Submit, there was steerage from school officers to “reduce publicity on Mike’s resignation and maintain all crucial messaging temporary, constructive and constant.” Additionally within the memo was steerage for officers to say that the regulation faculty had been “quickly delayed” and can be a “scaled-down future undertaking.”
Earlier than Johnson resigned from his place, he was maybe the regulation faculty’s largest booster, remarking on the significance of an establishment that might educate Christian legal professionals.
However he had additionally frequently requested an aide to discover a feasibility examine for the regulation faculty, as he needed to make sure that there can be adequate funding in place to open the establishment, in keeping with The Submit.
When the aide lastly positioned the examine, which was in a submitting cupboard, it didn’t help the feasibility of the regulation faculty.
Johnson wrote in a 2013 memo obtained by The Submit that the feasibility examine was a “hodgepodge assortment of papers,” with “nothing in existence” that recognized the need of the regulation faculty or particular funding sources.
Joe Aguillard, the president of Louisiana School from 2005 to 2014, reportedly pointed to Johnson “for the Regulation Faculty’s current delays in opening its doorways,” in keeping with a memo written by then-board member Heath Veuleman, which was additionally obtained by The Submit.
However in a press release provided to Insider in late October, Aguillard praised Johnson’s character because the Louisiana lawmaker takes on the highest-profile place of his political profession.
“He speaks from an inner ethical compass that’s true north and everybody ought to know that ‘Mike Johnson can’t be purchased,'” Aguillard mentioned. “Mike is offered out to his name by God on his life to proceed to steer in a life-long journey to guard life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
“In brief, America is in the most effective of palms beneath Speaker Mike Johnson’s management,” he added.
Insider reached out to Johnson’s workplace for remark.
