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.
Devos Department Meeting Again Stalls Over Opposition to Live-Streaming
Last month the Department of Education’s first meeting on rewriting the Obama “borrower defense” rule for student loans stalled for nearly the whole day over opposition by for-profit colleges and Department representatives to the organization Generation Progress / Higher Ed Not Debt and others live-streaming the meeting. Today, when the Department convened a parallel set
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To Rewrite Obama Rules, DeVos Picks People Tied to Predatory Colleges
After Betsy DeVos announced she was dumping the Obama gainful employment and borrower defense rules — measures designed to protect students and taxpayers against predatory abuses by for-profit colleges — and was starting a new round of rule-making, there was evidence that she was stacking the deck. Her Department of Education issued completely one-sided “issue papers”
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GOP’s Unholy Alliance: Trump-McConnell-Moore-Kochs
On the heels of the Senate’s massive tax giveaway to the ultra-rich, Mitch McConnell’s tilt this weekend toward bigot and accused predator Roy Moore shows that the Republican Party has become a disgracefully dirty alliance, with corrupt accused predator Donald Trump its poster boy. Trump this morning made his endorsement of Moore in the Alabama
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Trump Terrible 10: Tax Scam Edition
“There is no justice, the rich win, the poor are powerless. We become tired of hearing people lie.” — “The Verdict” (1982), screenplay by David Mamet I’m still not surprised by Donald Trump’s disgraceful performance in office. By the time he was elected it was clear how dishonest, corrupt, bigoted, incompetent, and just plain vile
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Student Loan Whistleblower Case Heads to Trial
A jury trial is set to begin Tuesday in federal district court in Alexandria, VA, of a long-standing whistleblower lawsuit filed by former U.S. Department of Education civil servant Jon Oberg against the student lender and collection agency Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA). This case may at last provide a public verdict regarding the notorious
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Trump Terrible 10: Democrat vs. Predator Edition
This was the week that the President of the United States told voters to choose an accused pedophile and disgraceful bigot to be Alabama’s next U.S. senator. Trump can’t sink any lower. Or can he? I’ll be letting you know next week. Since 2017, Republic Report‘s “Trump Terrible 10” has ranked the week’s 10 most disgraceful figures
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Ex-Bush Official Hansen Joins Board of Predatory For-Profit College Chain CEC, And It Makes Sense
A tangled web of for-profit connections adds up to more bad news for struggling students. For-profit college chain Career Education Corporation (CEC) announced last week that William D. Hansen has joined the company’s board of directors. It’s a disturbing validation by Hansen, a former top Department of Education official under George W. Bush, of a predatory
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Trump Terrible 10: Turkey Pardon Edition
I got a call from Bernie Bernstein of the Washington Post, offering me $300 to keep writing this feature. I was caught off-guard and blurted that I would probably still write it even without the money. I really regret that. But I’m thankful this week that we’re at 10 months out of 48 and we
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