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.
Trump Terrible 10: King Donald vs. The Eagles Edition
Americans conspiring with Russians to steal a stunning victory is awesome. Go Caps! Meanwhile, this was the week that Donald Trump became King. And took on the Eagles. Since 2017, Republic Report‘s “Trump Terrible 10” has ranked the week’s 10 most disgraceful figures in Trump world. Republic Report, which focuses on how money corrupts democracy, has met
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DeVos Dystopia: More Art Institutes and Woz U Staff Speak
With Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos having turned over her Department’s policies to lobbyists for the very predatory colleges that have ripped off students and taxpayers for billions of dollars, many of the bad actors in the for-profit college industry have accelerated a wave of conversions to non-profit status, aimed at freeing them from the few remaining federal
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Trump Terrible 10: Young and Beautiful Lives vs. 13 Angry Democrats Edition
Sixteen months down. We are, perhaps, one-third of the way through the Trump administration, although instead of 32 months more, it could be 3.2 or 320 months instead, lord knows, given the range of conceivable, disgraceful outcomes. Since 2017, Republic Report‘s “Trump Terrible 10” has ranked the week’s 10 most disgraceful figures in Trump world. Republic Report,
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The Defining Higher Ed Abuse of the DeVos Era
Troubling conversions of predatory for-profit colleges into corrupted non-profits benefit wealthy insiders — and harm students and taxpayers Below are comments I plan to deliver today to the U.S. Department of Education’s National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI). Members of the committee, good morning. Mr. Gunderson and Carl Barney, Mr. Juhlin’s boss, have
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Trump Terrible 10: I Hereby Demand Edition
If you voted for Trump and he goes to prison you should go too. Since 2017, Republic Report‘s “Trump Terrible 10” has ranked the week’s 10 most disgraceful figures 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
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Trump Terrible 10: Search for the Leakers Edition
Since 2017, Republic Report‘s “Trump Terrible 10” has ranked the week’s 10 most disgraceful figures in Trump world. This week we’re actually counting down the top 15. Because sifting through all the backstabbing leaks and other disclosures from this administration, it took us hours this morning to cut down the list from over 100 disgraceful people, and
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Inside a For-Profit College Conversion: Lucrative Ties, Troubling Actions
The once for-profit Art Institutes are now run by the non-profit, faith-based Dream Center. But they’re connected to the new Woz U and a web of for-profit companies — raising questions of conflict of interest and legal compliance. On the phone, Brent Richardson, the CEO and co-chairman of the new non-profit Dream Center Education Holdings
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Trump Terrible 10: Pre-Ordered Nobel Peace Prize Edition
In these tough times, hold your cheeldren close and comfort them with a repurposed Federal Trade Commission pamphlet. Yeah. Y’all know this shit as well as I do, so this week let’s get this done quickly, OK? Since 2017, Republic Report‘s “Trump Terrible 10” has ranked the week’s 10 most disgraceful figures in Trump world. Republic Report,
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