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.
Dream Center Schools Announce DeVos-Blessed Restructuring
Late today, Dream Center Education Holdings announced it would restructure its three chains of career colleges, which have been in a state of upheaval — with campus closures, layoffs, accreditor woes, and false statements to students — through the entire year that the new non-profit DCEH has operated the former EDMC for-profit schools. In an email
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Turmoil at Dream Center Colleges Spills Open With Seattle “At-Risk” Designation
The financial and organizational turmoil at Dream Center Education Holdings (DCEH), reported to me by multiple staff in recent weeks, has spilled into the open with, at least, a new letter from the Washington state higher education oversight body. In a letter sent Thursday to the campus director of DCEH’s Art Institute of Seattle (Ai
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Troubled College Operator Drops Lawsuit Against DeVos. Why?
The Center for Excellence in Higher Education, operator of a chain of colleges repeatedly caught deceiving and short-changing students, has quietly dismissed its lawsuit against the Department of Education, a case aimed at reversing the Obama administration’s 2016 rejection of the company’s bid to be treated as a non-profit institution. It’s unclear from the court
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Career Education Corp., Tied to DeVos Aides, Pays Millions to Settle State Claims of Illegal Practices
For-profit college chain Career Education Corp., a company closely tied to top officials of the Betsy DeVos Department of Education, announced today it has settled with the attorneys general of 48 states and the District of Columbia a law enforcement investigation that the state AGs have been pursuing since 2014, focusing on CEC’s abusive and
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Say It With Me: Donald Trump is Weak
One evening when I was in high school, a friend’s hard-edged, Republican mother revealed to me her preference for the 1980 GOP candidate to challenge a president, Jimmy Carter, who was struggling with the economy, energy policy, and the hostage-taking in Iran. “I like Connally,” she said, referencing former Texas governor and Nixon Treasury secretary
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If We Took Corporate Crime Seriously, Trump Would Never Have Been Elected
The news today that the Donald J. Trump Foundation has agreed to shut down, in the face of allegations by New York’s attorney general of “a shocking pattern of illegality,” is only the latest indication that, before he entered the White House, before Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, and before the recent criminal convictions
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Accreditor Withdraws Approval of For-Profit College Tied to Romney
The college accrediting agency ACCSC has revoked the accreditation of Vatterott College, based in Berkeley, Missouri. By letter dated December 5, ACCSC found that Vatterott had failed to make required improvements, including as to graduation rates and job placement success. UPDATE 12-17-18 6:00 pm: Vatterott College abruptly shut down its operations nationwide this afternoon,
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Students Sue Dream Center Over False Claim That School Was Accredited
With Dream Center Education Holdings (DCEH) staff members reporting signs that their non-profit operation may be on the verge of declaring bankruptcy or entering receivership, and perhaps that CEO Brent Richardson is moving on, a group of students from DCEH’s Illinois Institute of Art have just sued over the school’s false public statements that it
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