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.
Impact, or Coincidence? You Decide.
Reflecting this Sunday, we noticed that recently a number of disclosures in Republic Report were rapidly followed by relevant actions undertaken by the targets of our articles — maybe minor, mostly cosmetic changes, but some progress. Were our targets feeling heat, or were these just coincidences? You decide. 1. We reported Friday that ultra-wealthy for-profit
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Inside the Criminal Mind of Donald J. Trump
Never forget we elected a criminal as president. Let’s never do that again.
Is Arthur Keiser in Charge at St. Andrews University?
There is ample evidence that controversial, ultra-wealthy for-profit college owner Arthur Keiser, a powerful figure in business and politics, has obtained dominant influence over tiny St. Andrews University, a non-profit liberal arts school in southern North Carolina. Florida-based Keiser University, the largest institution that Arthur Keiser controls, started making multi-million dollar contributions to St. Andrews
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Video Panel: NY Times, Washington Post Journalists Discuss Reporting On Higher Education
Yesterday, I was lucky to moderate a panel, hosted by the University of San Diego, on the subject “How Advocates Can Work with the Media to Effect Change and Protect Postsecondary Students.” The panel included two journalists, Danielle Douglas-Gabriel of the Washington Post and Erica Green of the New York Times, plus two communications officials,
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Should An Accreditor Send Its Schools Lobbying Alerts From a Trade Association?
The coronavirus relief bill under consideration by the House of Representatives includes a provision to correct a strange piece of law that has long motivated predatory for-profit colleges to target their deceptive and coercive recruiting at America’s veterans and military service members. The new bill would alter the federal 90-10 rule, which requires for-profit colleges
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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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