Michael P. Farris is president, CEO, and general counsel of Alliance Defending Freedom. In January 2017, he became only the second person to occupy that position in the organization’s 23-year history. He brings to the role a remarkably diverse background as an effective litigator, educator, public advocate, pastor, and communicator, and wide recognition for his successful work on both the national and international stage.

Farris was founding president of both the Home School Legal Defense Association (1983) and Patrick Henry College (2000) and continues to serve as chairman of the board of HSLDA and chancellor emeritus of PHC.

He graduated from Western Washington State College, magna cum laude, with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science, followed by a Juris Doctor from Gonzaga University (with honors). At Gonzaga, he was articles editor of the Law Review and winner of the Linden Cup Moot Court Competition. He also earned an LL.M. in Public International Law from the University of London.

Farris has specialized in constitutional appellate litigation. In that capacity, he has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, eight federal circuit courts of appeals, and in the highest courts of 13 states. He is also the author of numerous amicus briefs before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Bauer served in President Ronald Reagan's administration for eight years, as Under Secretary of Education and Chief Domestic Policy Advisor.

After leaving the Reagan White House, Bauer became President of the Family Research Council and a Senior Vice President of Focus on the Family.

Bauer took his pro-family, pro-life message across the country during the 2000 Republican presidential primaries and debates.

Today, Bauer serves as Chairman of Campaign for Working Families PAC, dedicated to electing conservative candidates to Congress, and as President of American Values, an educational non-profit organization. He writes a weekly column at Human Events and co-hosts a weekend talk show on Sirius/XM Radio.

In 1973, Bauer received his law degree from Georgetown Law School in Washington, D.C. He is married to the former Carol Hoke, and lives in Virginia. Gary and Carol have three grown children.

“I am the guy that runs to the fight.”

For Michael Farris, the decision to lead one of the biggest organizations advocating religious liberty was motivated by thinking that threats to religious liberty were reaching a crisis point in America.

“If religious freedom falls, then other rights [will fall],” Farris tells The Daily Signal. “Free speech is going to fall, free press is going to fall, parents’ rights are going to fall.”

Farris has been named the new president, CEO, and general counsel of Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal defense organization launched in 1994 that works to safeguard religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and marriage and family, according to its website.

Ford announced plans today to invest more than $1 billion in three Michigan plants, potentially creating hundreds of new jobs. President Trump celebrated the announcement this morning, tweeting, "Major investment to be made in three Michigan plants. Car companies coming back to U.S. JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!"

President Trump also went to the Environmental Protection Agency today. He was in the belly of the bureaucratic beast to sign an executive order rolling back Barack Obama's job-killing environmental regulations.

In a related development, I am pleased to report that House Republican leaders announced this morning that they have restarted negotiations on legislation to repeal Obamacare. As you know, that is exactly what I called for in my report yesterday!

Progressives Go Nuclear

Don't look backwards to the healthcare fiasco, my friends. Another showdown may be looming on the horizon. Emboldened by the Republican healthcare defeat, left-wing senators are signaling that they will do whatever it takes to torpedo Judge Neil Gorsuch's confirmation to the Supreme Court.

Florida Senator Bill Nelson announced yesterday that he supports Chuck Schumer's decision to filibuster Judge Gorsuch. Eleven years ago Nelson was one of 19 Senate Democrats who opposed the filibuster of Samuel Alito. Nelson is also one of ten Senate Democrats up for reelection next year in a state Donald Trump won.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his GOP colleagues have it in their power to prevent this. They can change the rules, just as Harry Reid did, when it served the left's interests to do so. And conservatives should stop referring to this rules change as "the nuclear option."

In their desperation to control every lever of power in order to fundamentally redefine America, progressives are the ones "going nuclear" in order to block conservative judges.

Its decision to go after two journalists who exposed Planned Parenthood reeks of selective prosecution.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that in the state of California, the right to abort a child is the chief liberty in the land, and all other liberties must bow before it. Few things illustrate this sad and morbid truth more than the decision of the California attorney general to prosecute (or, more accurately, persecute) David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt.

Yesterday California charged Daleiden and Merrit with a whopping 15 felony counts based on their undercover videos — released through the Center for Medical Progress — showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing, among other things, harvesting and possibly even selling the organs of aborted babies. The heart of the indictment (14 of the 15 counts) is the claim that Daleiden and Merritt wrongly recorded alleged “confidential communications” between complete strangers at public conferences and at public restaurants.