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.
“Liberal Democrat” Lawyers Backing Kavanaugh Don’t Tell You They Represent Big Corporations
Trump Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is set to be introduced at his confirmation hearing by two Republican heavyweights — Senator Rob Portman (OH) and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice — and also by a lawyer most people haven’t heard of, Lisa Blatt. Why Blatt? She published an article in Politico last month entitled, “I’m a
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Trump Terrible 10: Google Trump News Edition
Our heroes: Jeff Sessions, Jim Comey, Jeff Flake, Michael Cohen, Omarosa Manigault, George Will, Bill Kristol, Lanny Davis (ok maybe not), John Brennan…. WTF have you done to us, Don? Since 2017, Republic Report‘s “Trump Terrible 10” has ranked the week’s 10 most disgraceful people in Trump world. Republic Report, which focuses on how money corrupts democracy, has
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URGENT. Tell DeVos Today: Don’t Abandon Ripped-Off Students
You have until midnight ET tonight to tell Betsy DeVos what you think of her proposed obliteration of regulations issued under the Obama administration to protect students and taxpayers from abuses by predatory for-profit colleges. My colleagues have a webpage that makes it easy for you to comment, and you can speak your mind —
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Trump Terrible 10: Walls Closing In Edition
Yeesh. Since 2017, Republic Report‘s “Trump Terrible 10” has ranked the week’s 10 most disgraceful people in Trump world. Republic Report, which focuses on how money corrupts democracy, has met its abusive dream mate with the kleptocratic administration of President Donald J. Trump. Trump and his lieutenants personify how money and greed, mixed with disrespect for constitutional values,
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Retired Generals Say Trump EPA Weakening of Chemical Rule Endangers America
Today, retired generals Russel Honoré and Randy Manner, and I, submitted a comment to the Environmental Protection Agency urging it not to repeal and replace rules issued in January 2017, at the end of the Obama administration, to make U.S. chemical plants less vulnerable to potentially catastrophic explosions and toxic releases. Here’s what we wrote: Dear
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Trump Terrible 10: #MAGA-Land Theme Park Edition
Since 2017, Republic Report‘s “Trump Terrible 10” has ranked the week’s 10 most disgraceful people in Trump world. We’re on vacation this week! But it’s fun to have togetherness activities here in the vacation house, and I hate board games and, especially, puzzles. So we’ve developed attractions for a new theme park, #MAGA-Land, where over-priced emoluments will
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Kushner Teaming With For-Profit College Backers As Trump-DeVos Assault on Students Mounts
The trade publication Inside Higher Ed today reports that Trump senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner convened a meeting last week at the White House to discuss innovation in higher education. Reviewing the reported attendee list, and considering that the meeting comes on top of three Department of Education announcements attacking Obama-era higher ed regulations,
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Scammers Use My Pictures To Swindle People on Facebook
With the recent and mounting revelations of Russia creating fake profiles to influence U.S. elections, of Facebook and Cambridge Analytica misusing personal data, of celebrities buying phony Twitter followers to pump up their reputations, and other troubling online behavior, I want to tell about another social media scam, for which I am, somehow, one of
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