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.
Biden Justice Dept. Hires For-Profit College Lawyer, And He’s Defending Betsy DeVos
The Biden Justice Department has hired for a key role — chief deputy and acting head of the Civil Division — Brian Boynton, a D.C. power lawyer whose corporate clients have included predatory for-profit colleges seeking to undermine federal rules aimed at protecting students. To compound this wrong, one of Boynton’s first moves was a
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GAO: IRS, Education Dept. Failed to See Abuses in For-Profit College Conversions
The Government Accountability Office has just released an extensive report concluding that both the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Department of Education have failed to address the dangers that conversions of for-profit colleges into non-profit colleges can result in improper financial benefits for the previous owners of those schools. Republic Report revealed in November
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Website Decries For-Profit Colleges And Also Markets Them
Candidate Joe Biden pledged to hold for-profit colleges accountable for ripping off taxpayers and ruining students’ lives, and Kamala Harris, in her Democratic convention speech, touted her work as California’s attorney general to fight for-profit college abuses. After four years of Trump education secretary Betsy DeVos protecting this bad-behaving industry, there’s much that the new
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Goodbye Diane Jones, The Worst Trump Official You Probably Never Heard Of
Apparently, someone at the U.S. Department of Education, with access to sensitive information, is pleased to see Diane Auer Jones, the top higher education official at the department, leave as the Trump administration ends. Politico‘s Michael Stratford reports today on a preliminary finding of the department’s inspector general office that Jones exceeded her authority in
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We Elected Donald Trump, But Then We Defeated Him. Thank You All.
Dear Friends, We made it. You did it. Four years ago, our country elected a racist con man, entirely unfit for office, to be president of the United States. And he stayed in the post a full four years, despite numerous crimes and abuses and an unprecedented two impeachments by the House of Representatives. As
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Florida Man Impeached For Second Time
A Florida man was impeached this week — for the second time in 13 months. Donald J. Trump, 74, of Palm Beach, was once again charged in a complaint by a neighbor living near Trump’s second home in Washington, DC. The neighbor, Nancy Pelosi, reported that Trump, a federal government employee, incited insurrection by falsely
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Senate Democrats Have A Chance to Do This Trump Impeachment Right
On Wednesday, even though just a week remained in the presidential term, and even with prospects for conviction in the Senate highly uncertain, the House of Representatives was one hundred percent right to impeach Donald Trump for the second time. The facts, our values, and the nation’s security demanded that the House act. Trump’s ugly
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Will Trump Pardon the Capitol Terrorists? I’m Asking Pat Cipollone
Here’s an email I just sent to White House counsel Pat Cipollone: Pat Cipollone, Esq. Counsel to the President The White House Washington, DC 20500 Dear Mr. Cipollone, I am writing to you as a concerned citizen. (I am a Washington, DC, attorney and former staff member of the National Security Council and
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