Clare Morell

Fellow

Clare Morell is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where she directs EPPC’s Technology and Human Flourishing Project. Prior to joining EPPC, Ms. Morell worked in both the White House Counsel’s Office and the Department of Justice, as well as in the private and non-profit sectors. She is also the author of the forthcoming book, The Tech Exit: A Manifesto for Freeing Our Kids, which will be published by Penguin Random House.

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Clare Morell is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where she directs EPPC’s Technology and Human Flourishing Project. Prior to joining EPPC, Ms. Morell worked in both the White House Counsel’s Office and the Department of Justice, as well as in the private and non-profit sectors. She is also the author of the forthcoming book, The Tech Exit: A Manifesto for Freeing Our Kids, which will be published by Penguin Random House.

At the Department of Justice, Ms. Morell worked as an Advisor to Attorney General Bill Barr. As part of her work for the Attorney General, she helped oversee the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice and served as Editor of the Commission’s final report. A major focus of the Commission’s report was the challenges that Big Tech’s end-to-end encryption presents to law enforcement for gaining lawful access to crucial intelligence in criminal investigations, like domestic terrorism, as well as human and drug trafficking crimes. Ms. Morell also supported the Attorney General’s work on Section 230 reform as one of his main priorities.

Prior to her role with the Office of the Attorney General, Ms. Morell worked on judicial nominations for the White House Counsel’s office and monitored all nominations data to create high-level presentations for briefing White House leadership. From her experience, Ms. Morell brings an intimate knowledge and understanding of how policy is advanced within the Executive Branch of the federal government, particularly in the Department of Justice and the White House.

Ms. Morell has had opinion pieces published in the Wall Street JournalFox News, Newsweek, the Washington Examiner, National Review, American Affairs Journal, Deseret News, The Federalist, Public Discourse, WORLD Magazine, the Washington Times, and the Daily Signal.

Ms. Morell received a B.S.F.S. from Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service, where she majored in Science, Technology, and International Affairs. She graduated summa cum laude and received the Edmund A. Walsh Award for academic achievement in international law. She also is proficient in Spanish.

Ms. Morell lives with her husband and three children in Washington, D.C.

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Protecting Journalism From Google

Clare Morell

To protect all publishers, but especially small ones, the United States should follow Australia, which this year began using antitrust-competition laws to unlock payments big enough to help journalism survive.

Articles

National Review Online / October 23, 2021

How Sex Trafficking Funds the Taliban and Terrorism

Clare Morell

There is a critical intersection between human trafficking and illicit finance.

Articles

Washington Times / September 16, 2021

On Regulating Social-Media Platforms, Follow Texas, Not Florida

Clare Morell

For all its strengths — especially its legal defensibility in court — Texas’s social-media law should be applauded and replicated. Indeed, it’s high time that other states around the nation go forth and follow.

Articles

National Review Online / September 15, 2021

Setting the Record Straight on Reining in Big Tech

Clare Morell

Big Tech companies could be treated by statute as common carriers for purposes of applying antidiscrimination principles.

Articles

National Review Online / August 5, 2021

On Censorship, Big Tech Has It Both Ways

Clare Morell

Tech companies enjoy the privileges of common carriers without the responsibilities. State antidiscrimination laws are one promising remedy.

Articles

The Wall Street Journal / July 30, 2021

Conservatives Agree Big Tech Is a Problem, But Split on the Right Solution

Clare Morell

LED light array

Something must be done to stop Big Tech censorship, but what? Here’s how lawmakers differ when it comes to antitrust law, Section 230 reform, and common carrier law.

Articles

The Federalist / July 8, 2021

INTERVIEW: The Right Is Still Divided on Big Tech

Clare Morell

In an interview with National Review’s Sean-Michael Pigeon, [Clare] Morell brings up the issue of antitrust, the real harms presented by tech companies, and the possibilities (and dangers) of bipartisanship on this issue.

Articles

National Review / June 30, 2021

Fathers Matter

Clare Morell

Fathers are essential to the flourishing of our country. Having a father in the home dramatically reduces a myriad of harms….

Articles

National Review Online / June 20, 2021

The PRO-SPEECH Act Is a Creative Solution to Censorship

Clare Morell

The unfair trade practices approach in Senator Wicker’s bill offers a creative path forward to countering Big Tech’s censorship.

Articles

Newsweek / June 16, 2021

Florida Is Moving the Ball Forward Against Big Tech Censorship

Clare Morell

Florida, in its efforts to combat Big Tech’s censorship, is doing exactly what states in our constitutional order are meant to do—experiment with new types of law.

Articles

Newsweek / June 4, 2021

Florida Is Moving the Ball Forward Against Big Tech Censorship

Clare Morell

Crucially, the Act makes important distinctions between journalists and citizens, thus trying to obviate certain constitutional difficulties.

Newsweek / June 4, 2021

How to Apply Non-Discrimination to Digital Platforms via Common Carriage

Clare Morell

The content moderation decisions of the dominant Big Tech conglomerates appear to many reasonable observers to be censorship of conservative speech. To remedy this problem, many have recently been looking to the common law doctrine of common carriage—particularly since Justice Clarence Thomas’s recent concurring opinion that highlighted this possible approach.

Articles

Newsweek / May 25, 2021

Careful analysis of what today’s digital technologies mean for you and your family, what the risks are, and what it might look like to protect human flourishing in a digital age from Senior Policy Analyst Clare Morell of the Technology and Human Flourishing Program.