Carrie DeCell
Carrie DeCell is a senior staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute and a lecturer in law at Columbia Law School. Her litigation focuses on freedom of speech on social media, government surveillance of speech at the border, and digital-age threats to freedom of the press.
DeCell leads the Knight Institute’s litigation in Dada v. NSO Group, a lawsuit on behalf of journalists and other members of the news organization El Faro, who were the victims of spyware attacks using NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware. DeCell also leads the Institute’s litigation in Doc Society v. Blinken, challenging the government’s mass collection and indefinite retention of visa applicants’ social media identifiers. She was a core member of the team litigating Knight Institute v. Trump, establishing that public officials’ social media accounts—including the president's Twitter account—are subject to the First Amendment. She has authored amicus briefs addressing First Amendment protections for publishers of leaked or stolen information of public concern, and statutory safeguards against government surveillance of journalists and activists. She has also been at the forefront of the Institute’s advocacy efforts against the prosecution of whistleblowers and publishers under the Espionage Act. And from the fall of 2018 through the spring of 2023, she ran the Knight Institute’s externship program with Columbia Law School.
DeCell has been published or quoted in the New York Times, The New Yorker, the Washington Post, The Guardian, The Intercept, and Just Security, and she has appeared on Democracy Now!, NPR’s All Things Considered, ABC’s The Signal, and Al Jazeera’s The Listening Post.
Prior to joining the Institute, DeCell was a senior associate at Jenner & Block LLP. As a member of the firm’s Media & First Amendment practice group, she handled a variety of matters involving constitutional and statutory speech protections and public access to information. She defended a major online publication against defamation claims and advised a non-profit organization regarding the protections afforded websites under the Communications Decency Act. Additionally, as a member of the firm’s Appellate and Supreme Court practice group, she drafted numerous merits and amicus briefs in cases before the Supreme Court and other courts of appeals.
DeCell graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Law School, where she served as the Essays & Book Reviews editor of the Harvard Law Review. Following law school, she clerked for the Honorable Judith W. Rogers on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
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Deep Dive
Why is The U.S. Still Probing Foreign Visitors’ Social Media Accounts?
Many people expected the Biden administration to end a Trump-era policy. Instead, the administration is expanding it.
By Anna Diakun & Carrie DeCell -
Quick Take
Biden Administration Continues to Defend Social Media Registration Requirement in Court
Indicates that it may retain Trump-era requirement
By Carrie DeCell -
Analysis
Trump’s Executive Order on the ICC is Illegal, Not Just Shameful
Sanctions raise First Amendment concerns
By Jameel Jaffer & Carrie DeCell -
Analysis
Can Governments Track the Pandemic and Still Protect Privacy?
A new European contact-tracing tool looks promising
By Carrie DeCell -
Analysis
Public Officials Can’t Block Critics from Official Social Media Accounts
Appeals court protects public’s right to read and respond to official social media accounts, at a time when we rely on them most
By Carrie DeCell & Meenakshi Krishnan -
Analysis
The Espionage Act Reform Bill Addresses Key Press Concerns
Provides crucial safeguards for reporters
By Carrie DeCell & Meenakshi Krishnan -
Analysis
Visiting the U.S.? The Government is Reading Your Old Facebook Posts
A new lawsuit could help stop the surveillance of 14 million people a year who visit the US. The courts must put an end to overreach.
By Carrie DeCell & Cristian Farias -
Analysis
Social Media Vetting of Visa Applicants Violates the First Amendment
Since May, the State Department has required almost everyone applying for a U.S. visa—more than 14 million people each year—to register every social media handle they’ve used over the past five years on any of 20 platforms, including Facebook, Instagram,...
By Carrie DeCell & Harsha Panduranga -
Analysis
Silence Surrounds Extreme Vetting of Ideas at the Border
Knight Institute lawsuit seeking records on the government's extreme vetting program produces only heavily redacted records and little information on the program
By Carrie DeCell -
Analysis
Groups Urge Court to Uphold Core Press Protection in DNC Lawsuit Against Russia, Wikileaks
Amicus brief from Knight Institute, Reporters Committee, and ACLU stresses safeguards for publishing information of public concern
By Carrie DeCell , Brett Max Kaufman & Gabe Rottman -
Analysis
Trump's "Extreme Vetting" is Muzzling Activists and Shutting Them Out
By turning away foreign activists, American authorities are masquerading censorship as immigration enforcement
By Carrie DeCell -
Analysis
“Dehumanized” at the Border, Travelers Push Back
Newly produced travelers' complaints underscore the intrusiveness of electronic device searches
By Carrie DeCell -
Analysis
CBP’s New Policy for Searching Devices Offers Thin Protection
New directive on border searches of phones fails to resolve constitutional problems and raises new concerns
By Carrie DeCell -
Analysis
Warrantless Border Searches: The Officer "Searched Through ... Intimate Photos of My Wife"
Traveler complaints reveal a range of discriminatory, demeaning, and gratuitously intrusive searches
By Carrie DeCell -
Analysis
We Need to Know More About Government Searches of Travelers’ Electronic Devices
Laptop and phone searches may be infringing on the freedoms of speech and press more than we realize.
By Carrie DeCell