About: David Halperin
Twitter: @DaHalperin
Bio: David Halperin is the co-founder and editor of Republic Report. Halperin, a self-employed lawyer based in Washington DC, engages in public advocacy, investigative work, and legal representation on a wide range of issues, including higher education, climate change, democracy, corruption, open government, and national security. He also advises organizations and companies on strategy, policy, communications, and legal matters. He is of counsel to Public.Resource.org, a non-profit focused on making legal and government materials available for free to the public.
Halperin’s investigative and advocacy work on predatory for-profit colleges since 2010 has spurred reforms in policy and regulations, triggered law enforcement investigations, and led to the closure of numerous deceptive schools.
Halperin was from 2004 until 2012 the founding director of Campus Progress and senior vice president at the Center for American Progress. Before that, he was: senior policy advisor for Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign; founding executive director of the American Constitution Society; White House speechwriter and special assistant for national security affairs to President Clinton; co-founder of the Internet company Progressive Networks (now called RealNetworks); counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee; law clerk to U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell (D.D.C.); research assistant to Robert S. McNamara; and research analyst at the Arms Control Association.
Halperin has represented clients in the U.S. Supreme Court and various state and federal courts. Among many other efforts, Halperin helped represent Greenpeace in an unprecedented 2004 Miami criminal jury trial over protest activity, resulting in a directed verdict of acquittal; aided climate groups facing investigation by the House Science Committee during 2015-16; and represented Public Resource in landmark copyright litigation from 2012 to 2024 over efforts to make federal regulations publicly available online without charge.
Halperin writes at Republic Report, and his articles also have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, The Nation, Politico, Slate, Foreign Policy, and other outlets. In recent years he has testified before the House Oversight Committee and at several federal agencies, and he has spoken at major conferences and events across the country. Halperin has served since 2007 on the board of directors of Public Citizen.
Halperin graduated from Yale College and Yale Law School.
The Trump Assault on Quality and Integrity in Higher Education
Here are remarks I offered today during the public comment segment of a meeting of the U.S. Department of Education’s National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI): At the February meeting, I urged you to speak up in the face of an unprecedented attack on the quality and integrity of higher education by
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NACIQI Members Stalemate on Picking New Chair
At the opening of today’s meeting of the U.S. Department of Education’s National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI), members of the panel have just reached a tie vote on the selection of a new chair. Zakiya Smith Ellis, a former New Jersey Secretary of Higher Education and NACIQI’s current vice chair, received
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At Education Department Rulemaking, Mixed Signals
For decades the U.S. Department of Education has been required by law to conduct extensive negotiated rulemaking meetings whenever it wants to issue regulations. The ritual of stakeholders, policy nerds, and lawyers packed into a room debating the minutiae of regulatory language and data is, in some sense, an affirming exercise in open, participatory democracy,
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Keep Up The Fight Against Predatory Colleges
Some words of determination, hope, and gratitude for my colleagues who continue the fight to stop predatory colleges from ripping off taxpayers and ruining students’ lives: I’ve worked in DC my whole career, and I’ve had, and still have, a lot of different jobs, besides working on higher ed. But working with our coalition of
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He Helped Run Some of the Worst For-Profit Colleges. The Trump Team Just Picked Him to Oversee College Quality.
On the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday, when most people are focused on travel plans and food preparation, the Trump administration released a list of its four nominees for open slots on the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI). That is the panel of outside experts that advises the U.S. Department of
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A Eulogy
With the Trump regime — driven by hate and racism — stigmatizing, brutalizing, and ostracizing immigrants across the country, I want to share the eulogy I was honored to deliver on Saturday at the memorial service for my wife’s mother. I have an easy assignment today – to engage you, and hopefully soothe you a
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Billionaire Behind Trump Pressure Campaign on Colleges Owns Predatory University of Phoenix
Private equity billionaire Marc Rowan was revealed last week to be the driving force behind a Trump administration campaign pressuring nine major U.S. universities, including Brown, MIT, and the University of Virginia, to accept a “compact” loaded with right-wing priorities. Rowan, CEO of giant Apollo Global Management, responded with a New York Times op-ed today
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Ex-Executives Sue Los Angeles Film School and Full Sail U. for Fraud
Two former executives at the for-profit Los Angeles Film School have sued the school, its connected operation Full Sail University, and the schools’ main owner, Bill Heavener, alleging that the school has defrauded federal taxpayers for years via a scheme that certified fake job placements for graduates. The complaint, filed last year in U.S. district
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