Michael P. Farris

Michael P. Farris, a member of the Board of Directors of the Free Congress Foundation, is "President and Founder [of the] Home School Legal Defense Association; attorney, specializing in constitutional law; former Republican candidate for lieutenant governor of Virginia, 1993; won contested nomination in convention; delegate to Virginia and National Republican Conventions; appointed to National Republican Education Task Force; appointed to Republican governor George Mien's Blue Ribbon Strike Force; Chairman, Christian Solidarity International (CSI) in USA; international vice president, CSI, an interdenominational Swiss-based human rights organization specializing in religious freedom; former general counsel, Concerned Women for America; author, Where Do I Draw the Line, Constitutional Law for Christian Students, Home Schooling and the Law, The Homeschooling Father."

Michael Farris is the "founding President of Patrick Henry College. He was named one of the most significant 100 'Faces of a Century' in education by Education Week newsmagazine. Mr. Farris is also a professor of Government at PHC, teaching constitutional law. He has argued constitutional cases in the United States Supreme Court, six of the United States Circuit Courts of Appeal, and in the appellate courts of twelve different states. He has been one of the leading social conservative activists on Capitol Hill for nearly twenty years. Farris received his Juris Doctorate and was an honors graduate of Gonzaga University School of Law in Spokane, Washington. He graduated magna cum laude from Western Washington University (formerly Western Washington State College) with a degree in political science. Mike and his wife, Vickie, have been home schooling since 1982. He founded the Home School Legal Defense Association a year later and served as its president until 2000. He continues as HSLDA's Chairman and General Counsel, a part-time role that allows him to devote the bulk of his time to Patrick Henry College. Mr. Farris has written three novels and five general interest non-fiction books on parenting, home schooling, and grassroots politics. His high school textbook on constitutional law is in its fourth printing. Mr.Farris is also an ordained Baptist minister. Mike and Vickie have ten children and six grandchildren. They reside in Purcellville, Virginia and are members of Blue Ridge Bible Church."

Public Eye noted in 1993 that: " some leaders of the contemporary Christian Right long for a return to religious tests for public office, among other elements of the pre-constitutional theocracies. Among these is Michael Farris, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor of Vir ginia. Mr. Farris, whose nomination epitomizes the Christian Right takeover of the state GOP, is a longtime Christian Right activist (as detailed in a recent report by People for the American Way).[1] He once served, for example, as general counsel for Concerned Women for America. But one aspect of Farris' record that has gone unreported is his involvement with the theocratic Coalition on Revival (COR)."


 * Director, Christian Freedom International
 * Member (1998 at least), Council for National Policy

External Resources

 * "Michael Farris: In His Own Words," People for the American Way Action Fund, June 24, 1993. (Critique)