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.
Senator Mike Lee Should Resign Today
Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) should resign today, for galavanting, maskless, around the September 26 White House Amy Coney Barrett event, shaking hands, hugging, close talking. Given the likelihood that the Rose Garden nomination ceremony was a coronavirus super spreader event, Lee’s behavior was far more reckless and destructive than anything former members of Congress Katie
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Reckless White House Event Calls Into Question Judge Barrett’s Judgment
After President Trump and other leading Republicans tested positive for COVID-19 this week, attention focused on the crowded September 26 White House event where Trump announced the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. Attendees, mostly without masks, were packed together, both at the outdoor ceremony and at indoor receptions. They were
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Keiser, Shireman Picked For DeVos Advisory Panel
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives announced new appointments to the Secretary of Education’s National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI), a panel that advises Secretary Betsy DeVos on college accreditation and other issues. It may be the first time there is a NACIQI member who has filed a federal complaint against another
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Those Troubling For-Profit College Emails: Read Them Here
Last week, US News reported on a pair of emails that Steve Gunderson, the CEO of the for-profit colleges’ trade association, CECU, sent to his members. In one, Gunderson, a former Republican congressman, makes blatant the organization’s preference for a Donald Trump and GOP victory in 2020 — a partiality that is not surprising, given
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CEHE CEO Tells Employees Judge’s Fraud Verdict Was “Political,” Vows Appeal
Eric Juhlin, the CEO of the Center for Excellence in Higher Education, has emailed his employees declaring a Colorado judge’s recent $3 million fraud verdict against the company and its schools a “political” decision and pledging to file an appeal. Juhlin followed up with a message instructing employees to tell students that the judge’s ruling
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25 Questions to Ask People Still Considering Trump
When the coronavirus was spreading in January, President Trump said it was “one person coming in from China” and “totally under control” and that everything would be “just fine.” As the virus continued to spread across the US in May, Trump pressed governors to lift restrictions. In June he told a campaign rally that he
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21 Questions for RNC Delegates Gathered in Charlotte to Nominate Trump
I’m here in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Republicans have gathered to nominate Donald J. Trump as their presidential candidate for 2020, and where Trump is scheduled to appear Monday. If you happen to encounter any of the GOP delegates in Charlotte, maybe during their brewery tour, live jazz outing, or golf event, here are a
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Big Win For Students: Colorado Court Slaps Carl Barney Colleges With $3 Million Fraud Verdict
Almost three years after Colorado’s attorney general took the CollegeAmerica and Stevens-Henager chains of career training schools to trial on charges of defrauding students, a state judge finally issued a verdict: The schools are guilty of fraud and must pay a $3 million judgment, as penalties for violating the state’s Consumer Protection Act. The court
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