Josh Hawley

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Josh Hawley, a University of Missouri-Columbia law professor who is considering a run for the Republican nomination for attorney general in 2016, testified on Tuesday in favor of a bill that would strengthen student religious groups.

The measure, which was originally filed in November by Rep. Elijah Haahr, a Republican of Springfield, is similar to one filed in January by Sen. Kurt Schaefer, a Republican of Columbia who has already announced his campaign for attorney general.

Hawley said that Haahr “deserves thanks for leadership” on the issue.

The legislation would disallow colleges from withholding any resource available to any other student group from religiously oriented student groups, and would allow them to turn away non-religious members.

In an email to supporters of the Missouri Liberty Project, the non-profit conservative advocacy organization he launched last year, Hawley said he had been working on the legislation for “more than a year” in response to “student faith groups have been told they may not choose leaders who share their faith” on “campuses nationwide.”

“It’s like telling the college Republicans they have to accept Democrats as leaders,” Hawley wrote. “This is discrimination on the basis of religion. It’s also a violation of free speech.”

Seven states – including Virginia, Ohio and Oklahoma – have passed similar bills, Haahr said.

Since launching the Missouri Liberty Project last summer in the lead-up to the U.S. Supreme Court hearing on the Hobby Lobby case (a company for which he was one of several attorneys), Hawley has maintained a steady presence on the campaign trail. Hawley has shown up to chili suppers and Lincoln Days, sometimes, speaking at the same events as Schaefer.