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, Tillerson, Exxon: American Kleptocracy
Donald Trump won the presidency by pledging to fight for the forgotten man and woman, the people left behind by corporate globalization and Washington corruption. But it’s clear now that it was simply another false promise from a career con artist. This morning, when Trump’s Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, arrived to start work, what was
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Whitehouse: Stonewalling Suggests Pruitt Trying To Hide Information From Senate
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) this morning wrote to the office of the Trump EPA nominee, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, to renew his demand for information about Pruitt’s communications with fossil fuel companies — and to suggest that Pruitt may be deliberately concealing information from senators weighing his confirmation. In response to a written question from
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Muslim Ban Heightens Concerns About Sessions, Tillerson
The Trump Administration’s ill-conceived, unlawful, and counterproductive Muslim ban executive order raises new concerns about the nominations of Jeff Sessions for Attorney General and Rex Tillerson for Secretary of State. With the White House under control of men who seem to lack the judgment and temperament to protect our nation’s national security — Donald Trump, Steve Bannon,
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DeVos Makes Clear She’ll Trash Rules That Curb Predatory Colleges
There were plenty of hints in the past few weeks, but now it seems clear as day: The Trump Administration plans, with the leadership of designated Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, to trash the work of the Obama Administration to protect students from the abuses for predatory for-profit colleges. Billionaire DeVos, whose nomination is scheduled
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Schumer Must Play Hardball, And Ally With the Grassroots
As the Donald Trump-Steve Bannon shock and awe campaign moves through its second week, it’s clear that it will take the determined efforts of millions of Americans to resist and repel the ugly new regime. Fortunately, a strong new anti-Trump resistance is growing, and even some Trump voters are already regretting their support. But one American
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King Donald, Get Used to Losing
I once worked as a speechwriter, so sometimes I get speeches in my head. Like tonight, after two federal judges dealt a setback to Donald Trump’s Muslim immigration ban. If you’re speaking at a protest this week, and you need material, feel free to borrow. King Donald, you’re right — you do have tremendous energy!
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Trump’s Inaugural Address: A Disgraceful Deception
Donald Trump’s inaugural address was a disgraceful extension of the deceptive sales pitch he used to get elected. Trump repeated his campaign promise to stand up for the forgotten working Americans, to fight the establishment, and drain the Washington swamp of corruption. But Trump already is breaking that promise by filling his Administration with out-of-touch billionaires,
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DeVos Declines to Support For-Profit College Accountability Rules
Senate HELP committee chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and the Trump transition conspired to hold Betsy DeVos’s confirmation hearing to be Secretary of Education at the bizarre early bird special time of 5 pm. Faced with a billionaire nominee who has financial investments in education companies, has favored privatization over public education, has failed to finalize
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