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.
Is Rubio’s Denial of Climate Change Tied to His Dependence on Koch Oil Money?
Tonight, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) will offer the rebuttal to President Obama’s State of the Union address. This isn’t a casual designation: Top Republicans and outside commentators are hailing the young Senator as the very future of the GOP. One issue where Rubio sharply contrasts with Obama is climate change. With record-high temperatures and devastating
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If A For-Profit College Becomes a Non-Profit, Is That Good? Not Necessarily
In the past two years, as the public has come to recognize that many for-profit colleges have been ripping off taxpayers and ruining students’ lives, enrollments have declined, and the once-mighty industry has gone into a tailspin. A number of schools, such as American Career Institute and ATI have abruptly shut down many or all of their campuses,
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Rep. Foxx Invokes Holocaust in Describing Obama Rules That Affect Her For-Profit College Donors
Representative Virginia Foxx (R-NC) yesterday paraphrased a well-known quote about the Holocaust to describe the Obama Administration’s regulation of for-profit colleges. Foxx, who has staunchly defended the for-profit college industry despite its blatant record of abusing students and ripping off taxpayers, apparently didn’t mention in her remarks that she is one of Congress’s biggest recipients
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As Mass. AG Probes Vanished For-Profit College, Senators Call for Broad Review
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley says she’s expanded her investigation of whether for-profit colleges have deceived students in her state about their prices, graduation rates, and job placement records. “The more we look, the more we see it as a real problem,” Coakley told the Boston Globe. Coakley identified one school she’s probing — American Career Institute (ACI),
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The World’s Hidden Laws, Free At Last
This article was written by David Halperin and Carl Malamud. Malamud is founder and president of PublicResource.Org, based in Sebastopol, CA. David Halperin, a Washington DC lawyer, advises the organization. A longer discussion of these issues, and links to the world’s hidden laws, are here. “The rule of law,” Aristotle wrote, “is preferable to
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For-Profit College Shuts Down, Leaving Students Out In The Cold
A for-profit college suddenly shut down all its campuses last week, leaving Massachusetts and Maryland students out in the cold. The owner of the company, American Career Institute (ACI), told me today that the business is closed for good, because its lenders forced it to shut. Although we don’t know all the facts yet, ACI’s abrupt
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Sexy For-Profit College Ad Targets ex-Lehman Bros Employees
Many of America’s big for-profit colleges spend more on advertising and high-pressure recruiting than they do on educating students — a key reason why so many of their students drop out and end up with insurmountable debt. If you have a TV or a computer — and you do — then you are probably bombarded
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Senators Demand Probe of For-Profit College Circumvention of Student Loan Default Rules
Eight U.S. Senators today sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan calling on him to investigate tactics used by some major for-profit colleges to circumvent rules aimed at reducing student loan defaults. A report issued in July by Senator Tom Harkin’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committee documented that several big for-profit
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