By Aundrea Gomez for THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR
In May 2023, when Rep. Mike Johnson was still a House member serving as chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, he sounded the alarm. Through a series of hearings, he warned of a real and growing threat: the weaponization of the federal government against the American people. He didn’t treat it as speculation. He treated it as urgent. In those hearings, he declared that “the FACE Act has been stripped of its intent” and was being used “to prosecute pro-life individuals.” He likewise warned that “churchgoers should be able to exercise their First Amendment right to religious freedom at places of worship without being terrorized.”
If the FACE Act has truly been “stripped of its intent,” as Speaker Johnson himself said, then the question is: Why hasn’t it been repealed?
Mike Johnson has been Speaker of the House since October 2023. He holds the gavel. He controls the agenda. Sure, votes are tight, but votes can be won for priority bills. Former Democrat Speaker Nancy Pelosi certainly knew how to do that.
Passed in 1994, the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act was pitched by Democrats as a tool to prevent violence and obstruction at abortion facilities and places of worship equally. The measure was signed into law by Democrat President Bill Clinton to “diffuse the intense anger and animosity” and to encourage people on both sides of the abortion issue to “start listening to each other again and talking with each other again and trying to honestly deal with these problems again.”
