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.
FTC and California AG Have Been Investigating Online College Provider 2U
Struggling online program management operation 2U has this year been under investigation by both the Federal Trade Commission and California’s attorney general, filings in federal bankruptcy court reveal. Maryland-based 2U, which has faced scrutiny and lawsuits over alleged deceptive practices and has struggled with heavy debt, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in federal court in
Continue Reading >>>
AG Pick Bondi Dropped Trump University Probe, But Pursued Keiser University
Donald Trump’s second-choice pick for attorney general, Pam Bondi, in 2013 received from Trump a $25,000 donation for a political action committee supporting her campaign to be re-elected as Florida’s attorney general — just days after a Bondi spokesperson told the media that her office was reviewing a lawsuit brought by New York’s attorney general
Continue Reading >>>
Accreditor ACCSC Again Grants Maximum Renewal To Troubled For-Profit Colleges
College accreditor ACCSC has renewed approval of four for-profit colleges owned by California-based International Education Corp. (IEC), a company that was forced to shut down many of its campuses in the past year after a U.S. Department of Education investigation revealed the schools were rigging student entrance exams and engaging in other fraudulent conduct. By
Continue Reading >>>
8 Ideas for Thriving and Winning During Trump 2
If you, like me, consider Donald J. Trump to be one of the most vile people on earth, and you consider his ugly, revenge-fueled MAGA agenda to be a dangerous assault on democracy, justice, human rights, and the American economy, then of course you have been smacked hard in the face. The rapid-fire announcements by
Continue Reading >>>
Trump Pentagon Pick Hegseth, While Fox Host, Lobbied For Colleges That Scam US Troops
Fox News host Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s choice to serve as the next U.S. Secretary of Defense, was, during the first Trump administration, paid by the main trade group representing for-profit colleges, and he spoke out against legislation aimed at protecting military service members and veterans from deceptive schools that bury former students in debt.
Continue Reading >>>
Stand Strong Patriots
It was shocking that American voters in 2016 narrowly elected Donald Trump after he demonstrated he was a vile person who pledged to do reckless and hateful things to our country. It was much more disturbing that the populace more decisively elected Trump in 2024 after they had voted him out in 2020 following
Continue Reading >>>
Carl Barney, Ex-Owner of Deceptive For-Profit Colleges, Donates Big to Trump
Carl Barney, the ultra-wealthy former owner of a chain of collapsed for-profit colleges, is the third biggest California-based donor to efforts to elect Donald Trump in 2024, the Los Angeles Times reports today. Barney has donated $924,600 to the Trump 47 Committee, according to federal records. Like Donald Trump, who in 2016 paid $25 million
Continue Reading >>>
DeVos Funnels $250k to Musk’s Pro-Trump Super PAC
Billionaire Betsy DeVos, who resigned from her job as Donald Trump’s secretary of education over Trump’s incitement of the deadly January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, has donated $250,000 to America PAC, the pro-Trump super PAC created by the world’s richest man, industrialist Elon Musk. The contribution was disclosed in a Federal Election Commission
Continue Reading >>>