Rachel N. Morrison

Fellow

Rachel N. Morrison is a Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where she directs EPPC’s HHS Accountability Project. An attorney, her legal and policy work focuses on religious liberty, health care rights of conscience, the right to life, nondiscrimination, and civil rights.

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Rachel N. Morrison is a Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where she directs EPPC’s HHS Accountability Project. An attorney, her legal and policy work focuses on religious liberty, health care rights of conscience, the right to life, nondiscrimination, and civil rights.

Before joining EPPC, Ms. Morrison served as an Attorney Advisor and Special Assistant to General Counsel Sharon Fast Gustafson at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), where she focused on religious discrimination issues and was a member of the General Counsel’s Religious Discrimination Work Group. Before that, she served as Litigation Counsel for Americans United for Life and as a Constitutional Law Fellow at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, defending the right to life and religious freedom for all. She also clerked on the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

Ms. Morrison’s legal analysis has been published in the Seton Hall Law Review, the Pepperdine Law Review, and the Ave Maria Law Review, as well as various other print media outlets.

Ms. Morrison earned her J.D., magna cum laude, from the Pepperdine University School of Law, where she was elected to the Order of the Coif and served as an editor for the Pepperdine Law Review and the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. She received her B.A. in Mathematics and Speech Communication, summa cum laude, from Whitworth University (Spokane, WA). She is a member of the District of Columbia and the Washington State bars.

Ms. Morrison lives with her husband and daughter in Virginia.

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Biden and Becerra Kill Democratic Norms in Rush to Fund Big Abortion

Rachel N. Morrison

The unprecedented politicization of OMB and HHS rulemaking processes under President Biden and HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra violates long-standing agency norms and undercuts the democratic process.

Articles

National Review Online / October 9, 2021

‘Separate but Equal’ Policies Have No Place in Health Care

Rachel N. Morrison

America tried “separate but equal” policies once before, and just like then, they have no place today in health care.

Articles

NH Journal / October 4, 2021

Race Discrimination by Any Other Name Is Still Race Discrimination

Rachel N. Morrison

Despite what some attempt to claim these days, race discrimination, even for the purpose of “equity,” is still race discrimination — and illegal.

Articles

National Review Online / September 30, 2021

Does the EEOC Really Get to Decide Whether RFRA Applies in Employment-Discrimination Lawsuits?

Rachel N. Morrison

RFRA should be available in all cases as a defense whenever the government substantially burdens religious exercise — regardless of whether the government is a party to the lawsuit.

Articles

National Review Online / September 22, 2021

EPPC Scholar Comment Opposing Proposed HHS Insurance Regulations

Rachel N. Morrison

EPPC Policy Analyst Rachel N. Morrison submitted a public comment to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services objecting to a proposed rule related to separate payments for abortion services and other insurance regulations.

Articles

Publications / July 29, 2021

Separate Payments for Abortion Services and Other Changes in HHS’s Proposed Insurance Regulations

Rachel N. Morrison

A new rule proposed by HHS would, among other changes, reverse Trump-era insurance regulations requiring separate billing and collection of payments for certain abortion services.

Articles

Revisiting Harris Funeral Homes’ Compelling Government Interest Analysis After Fulton

Rachel N. Morrison

United States Supreme Court exterior

After Fulton, the Sixth Circuit’s compelling interest analysis in Harris Funeral Homes cannot stand. Courts cannot credit the alleged compelling government interest of non-discrimination by ignoring the constitutional guarantee of free exercise.

Articles

National Review Online / July 8, 2021

Why Would Planned Parenthood Care About Donor Disclosure Laws When HHS Is Handing Them Millions…

Rachel N. Morrison

Planned Parenthood is directly implicated in litigation currently before the Supreme Court on a donor disclosure law, but is mysteriously silent on the issue.

Articles

The Federalist / June 3, 2021

EPPC Scholar Comment at HHS COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force Meeting

Rachel N. Morrison

EPPC Policy Analyst Rachel N. Morrison offered comment at HHS’s COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force meeting, urging the task force “to ensure that your efforts to promote equity do not encourage or enable illegal discrimination.”

Articles, Testimony

Publications / May 28, 2021

EPPC Scholar Comment Opposing Proposed Title X Rule on Abortion Funding

Rachel N. Morrison

EPPC Policy Analyst Rachel N. Morrison submitted a public comment to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) objecting to HHS’s proposed Title X rule that would funnel millions of taxpayer dollars to abortion providers by undoing a Trump-era regulation that ensured separation between Title X funded programs and abortion activities.

Articles

Publications / May 17, 2021

HHS Proposes Title X Rule to Refund Planned Parenthood

Rachel N. Morrison

The Biden administration is attempting to reverse Trump administration regulations that blocked Title X funds from subsidizing abortions.

Articles