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 Art Institutes, Long-Time Career College Operation, Dead at 103
The Art Institutes, a long-operating career college chain that developed a strong commitment to teaching but later devolved through a series of troublingly opportunistic owners into what the Justice Department called “a diploma mill,” says it has shut down for good. The school’s website says that effective September 30, the Art Institutes’ remaining eight campuses
Continue Reading >>>
New Debt Relief for Scammed U of Phoenix Students Heightens Peril of Idaho Deal
The U.S. Department of Education announced today that it will provide $37 million in student debt cancellation for some 1,200 former students who contend they were scammed by the University of Phoenix, which has long been the largest for-profit college and has received tens of billions in taxpayer funding. “The University of Phoenix brazenly deceived
Continue Reading >>>
Florida Career College’s Owner Faces More Scrutiny from Feds, California, Accreditor
International Education Corporation (IEC), currently fighting a decision by the U.S. Department of Education to cut off student aid to its school Florida Career College (FCC), is now facing additional scrutiny not only from the Department, but also from California’s attorney general and from accreditor ACCSC, which oversees ten campuses of two other IEC-owned schools,
Continue Reading >>>
Federal Appeals Court Affirms The Right to Publish The Law
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit yesterday issued a critical decision in a lawsuit I’ve been working on ever since the non-profit group Public Resource, where I serve as of counsel, was sued in August 2013. Here’s a release from the Electronic Frontier Foundation that explains what happened: SAN
Continue Reading >>>
Florida Palms University Has Closed
Florida Palms University, which opened in 2020 as a branch campus of Miami-based for-profit Atlantis University, has closed, according to the school’s website. The homepage of the site says the school, “after careful deliberation, has voluntarily ceased operations.” Other than an email address for obtaining transcripts, and a phone number for additional information, there seems
Continue Reading >>>
Feds Cancel Loans for 2,300 Students Scammed by Ashford U. So Why Does the School Still Get Tax Dollars?
The U.S. Department of Education announced today that it is cancelling $72 million in student loan obligations for more than 2,300 former students who attended for-profit Ashford University between 2009 and 2020. These ex-students had filed claims under federal rules, called borrower defense, offering debt relief for students who can show that their school ripped
Continue Reading >>>
Breaking: Donald Trump Still Appears To Be A Criminal
Business fraud, real estate fraud, charity fraud, education fraud, tax fraud, election cheating, sedition, government corruption, classified document theft, obstruction of justice, sexual assault, conspiracy to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 election, and tonight, another indictment in Georgia over efforts to undermine the 2020 election. Donald Trump (still) appears to be a
Continue Reading >>>
5th Circuit Blocks Biden Rule Aimed at Protecting Students From College Scams
In 2016, the Obama administration issued a regulation that, for the first time, meaningfully implemented a federal law that allows former students to have their federal loan debt cancelled if there is sufficient evidence that their school scammed them. This borrower defense rule established standards and procedures for students to seek such debt relief, and
Continue Reading >>>