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.
Put Trump’s Trial on TV (Or At Least Record It)
The Justice Department’s election conspiracy trial of Donald Trump, following the indictment filed late yesterday, will be one of the most important proceedings in the history of our country, and yet only a handful of people will ever see it, because, almost certainly, it won’t be on TV, not even videotaped. Every U.S. state allows
Continue Reading >>>
Donald Trump Appears To Be A Criminal (Update)
Education fraud, charity fraud, business fraud, tax fraud, election cheating, sedition, government corruption, classified document theft, obstruction of justice, sexual assault — and now conspiracy to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 election. Donald Trump appears to be a criminal. Here are the facts: November 2016: Donald Trump paid $25 million to settle civil
Continue Reading >>>
Biden Administration Grants $130 Million Debt Relief for CollegeAmerica-Colorado Students
The Biden Department of Education announced today that it has approved $130 million in automatic loan cancellation for some 7,400 former students at Colorado campuses of the now shuttered CollegeAmerica career school chain, part of the collapsed, disgraced Center for Excellence in Higher Education (CEHE) operation. A statement today from President Biden said of the
Continue Reading >>>
College Run by ACCSC Chair Seems to Violate ACCSC Rules
Atlantis University, a Miami-based for-profit school, appears to be in violation of a rule of the private accrediting agency that oversees its operations, a standard governing the use of “branch campuses” tied to a school’s central campus. Remarkably, in 2017 Atlantis won an award from that accreditor, Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges (ACCSC),
Continue Reading >>>
Did A Runaway Chatbot Spice Up A Website Praising College Owner Arthur Keiser?
A website with the apparent purpose of lauding controversial, ultra-wealthy Florida for-profit college owner Arthur Keiser has added 16 posts over the past two months, with titles like “Exploring Arthur Keiser’s Impact on the Academic Excellence of Keiser University,” “Why Keiser University Stands Out: A Closer Look at Arthur Keiser’s Educational Legacy,” and “The Philosophy
Continue Reading >>>
Feds Issue Warning: Colleges Can’t Silence Whistleblowers
On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Education issued a bulletin to colleges, warning that, under federal law, they cannot prohibit employees — including ex-employees who have signed non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) — from talking with the Department about their schools’ handling of federal student aid. The Department’s office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) said it was
Continue Reading >>>
Connecticut AG Sues For-Profit Stone Academy For Deceiving Nursing Students
Connecticut attorney general William Tong today sued Stone Academy, one of the many for-profit colleges that have shut down in the past year, with a complaint alleging the school promised nursing and other health care students a quality education leading to a good career, even as it cut educational spending and denied many attendees the
Continue Reading >>>
For-Profit Hussian College Is Shutting Down
On June 12, Hussian College, a for-profit school with campuses in four states, said that it plans to shut down. According to the website of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, Hussian announced that it “cannot continue to operate except to complete instruction for students in the internship or clinical portions of their programs. Thereafter, it is
Continue Reading >>>