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.
Exposed: For-Profit Colleges’ Blueprint for Blocking Obama Regulations
Posted on the website of an accounting firm in Puerto Rico is a revealing PowerPoint presentation dated February 20, 2014, and credited to Steve Gunderson, the CEO of APSCU, the trade association of for-profit colleges. It outlines APSCU’s plan for defeating the Obama Administration’s key regulation aimed at holding for-profit colleges accountable for leaving students
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Washington Post Opposes Regulating For-Profit Colleges Without Disclosing Publisher’s Stake In The Industry
This week the Washington Post editorialized against President Obama’s “gainful employment” rule, aimed at holding career training programs accountable for leaving students with insurmountable debt, without disclosing that the newspaper’s publisher, Katharine Weymouth, serves on the board of directors of a company that owns for-profit colleges and that is lobbying actively against the rule. An
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Study: Blacks, Latinos, Low-Income Live Closest to Dangerous Chemical Plants
A new study released today finds that the Americans who live near hazardous chemical industrial facilities are disproportionately African American or Latino, are more likely to live in poverty, and have lower incomes and education levels than the national average. These trends accelerate rapidly as one gets closer to the “fenceline” areas nearest dangerous chemical plants.
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For-Profit College Offers Students Pizza To Lobby Against Obama Regulation
While it storms government offices with high-priced lobbyists, the for-profit college industry also is aiming to flood Washington with cards and letters from their students and staff opposing President Obama’s gainful employment rule. This proposed regulation would, sensibly, cut off federal aid to career education programs that consistently leave students with debts they cannot repay.
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For-Profit Colleges Spend Big On Lobbyists to Fight Obama Regulation
With the May 27 deadline approaching to submit comments to the U.S. Department of Education, big for-profit colleges are pulling out all the stops to gut the Obama Administration’s proposed “gainful employment” rule, which is aimed at curbing predatory career training programs. Taking some of the $33 billion a year they’ve been getting from taxpayers,
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New Trove of Federal Reviews of College Financial Aid Compliance
The U.S. Department of Education has this week posted online reports from its program reviews of colleges receiving federal student aid, including major schools like Georgetown University and the University of Arizona, as well as of controversial for-profit colleges. The purpose of these regular reviews, where Department officials randomly sample student files and other records and meet
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Law Enforcement Investigations and Actions Regarding For-Profit Colleges
Pending and past federal and state government investigations and actions regarding for-profit colleges Compiled by David Halperin, Attorney, Washington DC UPDATED 01-21-26 This is a list of pending and past significant federal and state civil and criminal law enforcement investigations of, and actions against, for-profit colleges. It also includes some major investigations
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Breaking: Justice Dept. Sues For-Profit Stevens-Henager College
Today the United States District Court in Idaho unsealed a complaint that has been joined by the U.S. Department of Justice under the federal False Claims Act against for-profit Stevens-Henager College and its affiliated schools CollegeAmerica and California College of San Diego. The case was filed as a whistleblower suit last year by two former recruiters
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