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.
For-Profit College Barons in Vegas: Have They Hit the Jackpot?
While everyone else is glued to Comey TV, the discredited for-profit college trade association CECU is meeting this week in Las Vegas. Last year’s CECU convention, held in Orlando, found the once-buoyant for-profit college owners, who have been pulling in billions in taxpayer dollars, in a sadder mood, as the weight of revelations about predatory
Continue Reading >>>
What The Five Ex-Presidents Should Say About Trump
I don’t expect it anytime soon, but I wish former presidents Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama would break all the ex-presidents rules and release a joint statement condemning President Trump as a disgrace to our nation. It would be the patriotic thing to do, and it would have the
Continue Reading >>>
How Is Trump Picking A New FBI Director Even a Thing?
In his Tuesday briefing, White House press secretary Sean Spicer noted that President Trump was today interviewing two new candidates for the FBI director job — former assistant attorney general Christopher Wray and former TSA administrator John Pistole. Prior to his overseas trip, Trump had been reviewing other candidates, including former senator Joe Lieberman, who
Continue Reading >>>
For-Profit Colleges Sue To Block Protections for Defrauded Students and Taxpayers
A California-based trade group largely comprised of for-profit colleges late Wednesday sued Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to block a 2016 Obama administration regulation, called the borrower defense rule, aimed at protecting students from predatory college practices. The rule they attack (1) implements a law already on the books that permits students who are defrauded by
Continue Reading >>>
Trump is a Crook; House Should Start Impeachment Probe
Donald Trump is a crook. He had freshly-confirmed Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein write a little essay about Hillary Clinton emails and called that the reason for firing FBI director James Comey, but then tons of Trump associates immediately blabbed to the press with the real, obvious reason. Trump was “screaming” at the TV about
Continue Reading >>>
After Comey: How To Be a Patriotic Insider
With unprecedented secrecy and increasingly disturbing acts inside the Trump administration, how can federal employees expose the truth? On April 27, Donald Trump signed an executive order creating within the Department of Veterans Affairs a new office charged with protecting whistleblowers, that is, Department staff who want to report wrongdoing inside the VA. The administration trumpeted this
Continue Reading >>>
Do Indiana Taxpayers Want To Buy This For-Profit College?
Graham Holdings Co. announced this morning in a filing with the SEC that it plans to sell its for-profit Kaplan University to a new non-profit public-benefit corporation called New University that is affiliated with Indiana’s Purdue University, a state institution. Purdue confirmed the deal in a press release quoting its president, Mitch Daniels, the former
Continue Reading >>>
Maryland Governor Candidate Backed Predatory Colleges
Alec Ross today announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for governor of Maryland. On his new campaign website, Ross includes a bio that cites impressive and admirable accomplishments — former Baltimore City middle school teacher, Obama 2008 campaign staffer, Senior Advisor for Innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, author, Senior Fellow at Johns
Continue Reading >>>