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.
Let’s March To Demand Impeachment
Donald Trump is the most corrupt president in our history, endlessly seeking to use his presidential powers for political and financial gain. His blatant disregard for the rule of law, and for values including human rights, equality, and a free, independent press, pose an existential threat to America’s 250-year experiment with democratic self-rule. This presidency
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Warren Probes Private Equity Owners of For-Profit Colleges
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), joined by Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI), has written to six U.S. private equity firms regarding their investments in for-profit colleges. In light of growing evidence that private equity-owned for-profit colleges are some of the worst actors in an industry rife with bad behavior, Warren and Pocan have asked the firms to
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Warren, Colleagues Ask Collapsed For-Profit ECA Not To Sell Student Debt to Collectors
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Rep. Bobby Scott (R-VA), and other members of Congress have written to the collapsed for-profit college chain Education Corporation of America (ECA) and its court-appointed receiver asking that ECA not sell its outstanding student loan debt to a financial firm that would seek to collect payments from former students. The letter,
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Falwell, Trump’s Favorite College President, Pioneered the Scam Non-Profit College
When the head of fraudulent Trump University became President of the United States, he quickly anointed Jerry Falwell, Jr., as his favorite college president. The Liberty University head had endorsed Trump for the White House in January 2016. In return, at least according to Falwell, president-elect Trump offered to make Falwell his Secretary of Education.
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Trump-DeVos-Jones Rollbacks Allow Scam Artists to Rip Off Students & Taxpayers
One more thought on this week’s Capitol Forum report on abuses at Career Education Corp. under CEO Todd Nelson, last week’s FTC action against CEC, and treatment of for-profit colleges under Donald Trump and his education secretary, Betsy DeVos. Diane Auer Jones, the former CEC senior executive who is now DeVos’s top higher education aide,
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Report Highlights Decline In Quality at Troubled Career Education Corp.
A new report from the research firm Capitol Forum documents evidence that educational quality has declined significantly in recent years at the colleges operated by for-profit Career Education Corporation (CEC). The report relies on statistical analysis and also interviews with former CEC employees. When Todd Nelson became CEC’s CEO in 2015, the school already had
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Ex-Rep. Vin Weber Quits Lobby Firm over Ukraine; Still Faces ITT Tech Suit
Former congressman Vin Weber (R-MN) has quit his lobbying job at Mercury Public Affairs, saying the ongoing Ukraine influence-peddling probe, which has been examining the lobby work Weber did for Ukrainian interests, “has become a distraction” and he will “focus my time and energy on protecting my reputation.” That reputation, though, includes Weber’s long tenure
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Judge Says He Needs More Time to Decide CollegeAmerica Fraud Case
A Colorado state judge says he needs more time to rule in a fraud case that Colorado’s attorney general took to trial in late 2017 against the CollegeAmerica chain of career colleges. The case was filed by then-Colorado attorney general John Suthers and pursued by his successor, Cynthia Coffman, both Republicans. CollegeAmerica called as its
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