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.
Obama Task Force on Chemical Dangers: Strong Enough?
Last year, a devastating chemical plant explosion in the town of West, Texas, killed 15 people and injured 160 more. The tragedy seemed to reawaken in President Obama a determination to improve safety and security at America’s industrial chemical facilities, whose dangers, from catastrophic accident or terrorist attack, led him, as a Senator, to call
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Leader of Attack on Obama Global Warming Plan? Rudy Giuliani’s Firm
After the attacks of September 11, 2001, New York’s Rudolph Giuliani became “America’s Mayor,” mobilizing his city and standing as a defiant foe of the forces of terrorism. Then, after the devastating force in the New York area of superstorm Sandy, Giuliani, campaigning in 2012 for Mitt Romney, again presented himself as a protector of
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For-Profit College Enrolls, “Exploits” Student Who Reads At Third Grade Level
A librarian at a southern California campus of Everest College abruptly resigned last week, deeply upset that the for-profit school had admitted into its criminal justice program a 37-year-old man who appears to read at a third grade level. The man, who shakes, speaks haltingly, and may suffer from a developmental disability, told the librarian
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Obama Must Stop Giving Taxpayer Billions to Colleges That Ruin Students’ Lives
Tonight at midnight ET is the deadline for people to comment on the Obama Administration’s gainful employment rule for career college programs. Below is the text of my comment (pdf here), just submitted. To: Secretary of Education Arne Duncan Re: Program Integrity – Gainful Employment, Docket ID ED-2014-OPE-0039 Dear Secretary Duncan: I participate in the
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Top Donor for House Education Chair is For-Profit College Facing Federal and State Fraud Probes
As reported yesterday by OpenSecrets, Representative Virginia Foxx (R-NC) has no serious opposition in her bid for reelection, yet has received more than $800,000 in campaign contributions. More than half of that money has come from outside North Carolina, much of it from corporate special interests. The biggest industry donating to Foxx, who is chair
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Marco Rubio: The Dirty Energy President
On Sunday’s ABC “This Week,” Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) expressed two notable opinions. First, he said he’s ready to be president of the United States. Second, he asserted that climate change is not caused by humans and cannot be slowed by regulation: RUBIO: I don’t agree with the notion that some are putting out there, including
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Federal Judge Dismisses Libel Suit Brought By Coal CEO Robert Murray: The Opinion
This morning, United States District Judge Gregory L. Frost dismissed a defamation lawsuit filed by Robert Murray, CEO of coal company Murray Energy, against blogger Mike Stark and the Huffington Post. Some reporting on the case is here and here. Stark was represented by the ACLU of Ohio and me. Below I’ve posted Judge Frost’s
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Suze Orman Warns Against Private Student Loans, Yet Teaches at University of Phoenix
Last year I reported that Suze Orman had been hired by the University of Phoenix to teach an online personal finance course and had appeared at a Capitol Hill event where she promoted the school, which is the largest for-profit college in the country. It was difficult to understand how a woman who proclaims herself
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