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.
Owner of Troubled, Closed Texas College Now Advises Another For-Profit School
Betsy DeVos has turned her back on students hurt by predatory colleges. Look what happens when accountability is weak. When I called for-profit Quest College this week and asked to speak with Larry Earle, the receptionist insisted there was no one to reach there by that name. But that wasn’t true. Lawrence Earle, the for-profit
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Trump and Obama Are So Much Like “Goofus And Gallant” From Highlights Magazine That It’s Insane
A video posted today of Barack Obama kindly shaking hands with everyone while on jury duty, while Donald Trump is slamming around Asia, underscored that Trump and Obama are so much like “Goofus & Gallant,” a long-time feature from the children’s magazine “Highlights,” that it’s insane. The boorish Trump and the mannerly Obama are perfect
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Trump Terrible 10: Always Russian Edition
Why are fire engines red? Whatever. An incompetent, ignorant, unstable, Putin-backed con artist is somehow still president of our United States. Since 2017, Republic Report‘s “Trump Terrible 10” has ranked the week’s 10 most disgraceful figures in the Trump universe. Republic Report, which focuses on how money corrupts democracy, has met its abusive dream mate with the kleptocratic
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Ivanka and Jared’s Ethics Lawyer Somehow Wins Ethics Award
Since Donald Trump was elected president, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner have demonstrated a remarkably troubling record regarding adherence to government ethics standards and disclosure requirements. Yet somehow their chief ethics lawyer, Washington corporate attorney Jamie Gorelick, has just been honored by a legal group as one of a group of lawyers who are “making
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Trump Terrible 10: Manafort Indictment Edition
Since mid-2017, Republic Report‘s “Trump Terrible 10” has ranked the week’s 10 most disgraceful figures in the Trump administration. 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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Trump Populism Has Won the GOP Civil War? Not a Chance
I’m puzzled by the claims we’ve heard in the media all day, triggered by the retreats of establishment conservative senators Jeff Flake and Bob Corker, that Trump “populists” have won the GOP civil war. While Roy Moore did win his Alabama senate primary over Mitch McConnell ally Luther Strange, and Steve Bannon preens around the
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List of Dept. of Education’s Borrower Defense Negotiators
This morning the Department of Education emailed to individuals selected for its negotiated rulemaking committee for borrower defense, and financial responsibility subcommittee, a list of all negotiators. Here’s who the Department selected. Borrower Defenses and Financial Responsibility Negotiated Rulemaking Committee 2017-2018 Federal Negotiator U.S. Department of Education Annmarie Weisman
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Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is a Disgrace
It’s increasingly clear that Trump Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has the awful ethics and values of, let’s say, a Donald Trump. Let’s count some of the ways: 1. As reported just today, Zinke has been and remains active in funneling money to scam political committees that rip off elderly donors by taking their money and
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