Ethics and Public Policy Center



The Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) is a right-wing think tank that was founded in 1976 by, and claims to be "dedicated to applying the Judeo-Christian moral tradition to critical issues of public policy."

EPPC's stated interests are: From the Cold War to the war on terrorism, from disputes over the role of religion in public life to battles over the nature of the family, EPPC and its scholars have consistently sought to defend and promote our nation's founding principles—respect for the inherent dignity of the human person, individual freedom and responsibility, justice, the rule of law, and limited government.

Ernest W. Lefever
Lefever was nominated by Ronald Reagan in 1981 to be the Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs. The nomination was opposed by a prominent human rights activist who had been tortured by the Argentinian military junta. Two of Lefever's own brothers opposed his nomination, claiming that Ernest Lefever supported racialist views. One of Lefever's brothers quoted Ernest as saying that "blacks were genetically inferior".

Edward Whelan
Edward Whelan is the current president. In 2018 during the period of Judge Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing for Supreme Court of the United States, Kavanaugh was accused of sexually attacking a 15-year old girl when he was a 17-year old. The victim, (now a psychologist and statistics professor), remembered details of the incident and also named a witness. Whelan cooked up a theory that a different boy from Kavanaugh's school committed the attack and went so far as to name him without providing any evidence whatsoever, something that could be considered defamation. Never mind the Commandment, "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour." A PR firm, CRC Public Relations, apparently helped Whelan cook up this mess.

Rick Santorum
Rick Santorum received wingnut welfare as a Senior Fellow of EPPC, and directed the center's "Program to Promote and Protect America's Freedom" from to 2007 to 2011.

Mona Charen
In 2018, Senior Fellow Mona Charen, an anti-Trump conservative, spoke at the American Conservative Union's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and was unusually critical of conservatives, stating: I am disappointed in people on our side for being hypocrites about sexual harassers and abusers of women, who are in our party, who are sitting in the White House, who brag about their extramarital affairs, who brag about mistreating women—and because he happens to have an 'R' next to his name we look the other way. Charen also criticized CPAC for inviting the niece of Marine Le Pen.

Fellows and scholars
As of 2018, their fellows and scholars include: • 3