Michael Farris fought his early legal battles in Spokane
A Virginia lawyer who is being described as the leader in a conservative movement to assert parental rights in school policies got his start in law and advocacy in Spokane.
He is in the headlines regarding his role in what critics say is a secretive group trying to undermine the public education system.
Before representing such groups as the Moral Majority of Washington, the American Coalition for Traditional Values and the Alliance Defending Freedom, Michael P. Farris was a young attorney in Spokane.
He studied at Gonzaga Law School and applied for an vacant seat on the Spokane School Board in 1975 before graduating in 1976. (The school board selected a different applicant for the seat.)
Among other causes, he fought liquor sales at the Spokane Opera House, trying unsuccessfully to get enough signatures to put that on the ballot. He also tried to get the City Council to block the show “Oh, Calcutta!” because it contained nudity on stage; the council voted to allow the show to proceed.
He represented people who wanted Spokane schools to “put the Christ back into Christmas” and others who wanted the book “The Learning Tree” removed from sophomore English classes at Mead High School. Both efforts failed, the latter in a lawsuit that went as far as the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and a refusal by the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case.
In one of his biggest victories, he sued the city of Spokane over its parking meter policy, which at the time made overtime parking a criminal offense. A Spokane County District Court judge agreed with Farris that the city couldn’t prove the vehicle’s owner, who would be the person responsible for the ticket, was the one who had parked it, and thus it violated the principle of the presumption of innocence. The city later rewrote the ordinance to make overdue parking a civil offense.
In 1980, he left Spokane for Olympia to be the executive director of Moral Majority of Washington and later its successor, the Bill of Rights Legal Foundation. He challenged Washington’s ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment when he filed a lawsuit on behalf of three state lawmakers and lobbied for a series of conservative Christian causes. He tried to get a library to release the names of people who checked out the book “Achieving Sexual Maturity” and mounted a legal challenge to the newly approved state lottery.
He clashed with the Public Disclosure Commission over whether the group needed to register as a political organization because it circulated newsletters with rankings of political candidates based on a point system derived from its issues.
He also represented Spokanite Larry Witters, a blind man who wanted to use state aid from the Department of Services for the Blind to study to be a pastor. The Washington Supreme Court agreed with the state, but the U.S. Supreme Court later ruled in favor of Witters.
In 1984, Farris left Washington to become chief counsel and lobbyist for Concerned Women for America. But he returned to Spokane in 1985 at the height of protests over the anti-abortion picketing rules at the Sixth Avenue Medical Building.
After several Spokane anti-abortion activists had been jailed for violating a judge’s order, Farris spoke at a rally of some 400 people at the First Assembly of God church. He appeared on stage with some of the local protesters and national leaders of the anti-abortion movement like Beverly LaHaye of Concerned Women for America and Joseph Scheidler, author of “99 Ways to Close an Abortion Clinic.”
Farris urged the audience to “put on the armor of God,” flout the order and picket.
The next day, about 100 people picketed in violation of the order and several, including Scheidler and two state legislators, were later cited on suspicion of contempt.
Farris joined the legal fight against the order but eventually clashed over tactics with local attorney Russell Van Camp, who was representing the local protesters. That summer, Farris filed a federal lawsuit against the judge and the owners of the Sixth Avenue Medical Building on behalf of some of the out-of-town protesters, alleging a violation of their First Amendment rights.
Van Camp and his clients didn’t join that suit, which was eventually dropped after Farris missed deadlines for filing documentation to the claims and U.S. District Judge Justin Quackenbush ordered it dismissed.
Editor’s note: This report was changed on Sept. 7, 2023 to correct errors. Farris applied for a vacant Spokane Public Schools board seat in January 1975 while still a Gonzaga Law School student following the resignation of board member Richard G. Oakley. Farris was one of 22 applicants, though the school board selected then-Spokandy owner William W. Thomas to fill the opening. The original version of this report incorrectly stated that Farris ran in an election for a board seat. It also incorrectly described why a Spokane County District Court judge ruled in the case brought by Farris that the city of Spokane’s then-parking law was unconstitutional. Judge John A. Schultheis ruled that the law violated the principle of the presumption of innocence because it assumed the owner of the car illegally parked was the same person who had parked it illegally. The story also incorrectly described Farris’s work challenging the Equal Rights Amendment. Farris filed a lawsuit in 1979 on behalf of three Washington legislators challenging Washington’s ratification of the ERA because three-fourths of the states did not ratify the amendment by the original deadline to do so.