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.
Private organizations charge citizens up to $849 to read a federal law
Imagine a country where the government makes laws and requires citizens to obey, yet citizens can’t read some of those laws unless they purchase the text, sometimes for a large amount of money, from a private organization. Imagine a country where a citizen posts the building safety laws of his own town on a website
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EXCLUSIVE: Leaked Memo Reveals That House GOP Leaders “Directed” For-Profit College Lobbying Strategy To Keep Federal Money Flowing
For-profit colleges like ITT, DeVry, Kaplan, and the Art Institutes — sometimes called subprime schools because they leave many students deep in debt while taking billions of dollars from taxpayers — continue an expensive lobbying push to influence Congress and avoid accountability. Republic Report has received a 2011 draft strategy memo by the biggest for-profit college
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Why We’re Asking Congress To Take a Stronger Stand vs. K St Corruption
Today, Republic Report announced that we are asking all 34 retiring members of Congress to make a simple, common sense commitment: “I will disclose any negotiations or offers for jobs on the front page of my congressional website.” This afternoon we are delivering letters to all 34 congressional offices seeking this commitment. We want you
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At Investor Conference, For-Profit Colleges Tout Success, Ignore Controversy
Yesterday I listened over the web to two CEOs of for-profit education companies make presentations at an investor conference in Scottsdale, Arizona. Neither man had anything to say about the overwhelming evidence that for-profit schools have engaged in waste, fraud, and abuse with federal tax dollars. Instead, both touted their companies, and one announced a startling
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Exclusive: The Blueprint Of The For-Profit College Newspeak Campaign
Shakespeare’s Juliet told her Romeo, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” The star-crossed lovers could not have known that centuries later those words would be invoked by one of America’s most controversial industries in a manner more worthy of Orwell’s 1984. A
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Romney Has Some Great Friends Who Are For-Profit College Owners
It’s not just NASCAR. Mitt Romney’s “great friends” tend to be owners of things, owners who can make large contributions to his campaign and associated Super PAC. Large donations are troublesome because they suggest the donor will have outsized influence on the politician if elected. It’s more troublesome when these great friends own businesses that
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House, in Latest Pledge of Fealty To Donors, Votes Against Accountability for For-Profit Colleges
On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives, by a vote of 303-114, passed a bill to block Department of Education rules that would help hold for-profit colleges accountable for abusing students and taxpayers. The vote represented another effort by the House, under the sway of campaign contributions and intense lobbying from the wealthy for-profit college industry, to
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Controversial For-Profit College Industry Gets Half of All The Funds From Vets Tuition Program
Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) just released new Defense Department data showing that the troubled for-profit college sector — which has left many American deep in debt — received half of all military Tuition Assistance dollars last year — $280 million out of $563 million for college grants for active duty military. During their decade of explosive
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