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.
Lieberman, Introducing DeVos, Fails to Disclose That His Law Firm Represents Trump
Former Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) tonight introduced Donald Trump’s controversial nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, to the Senate HELP Committee. Lieberman lavishly praised DeVos, but failed to inform the American people that his law firm, Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman LLP, “have represented Trump in all manner of matters since at least 2001.
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Should America Pick A Secretary of State Who Faces Fraud Investigations?
Among the most disturbing aspects of Rex Tillerson’s confirmation hearing — he failed to disavow the idea of “a national registry for American Muslims”; he declined to offer an opinion on whether Vladimir Putin (pictured above with Tillerson) had committed war crimes; he said he didn’t view climate change “as the imminent national security threat
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Trump Loves Putin; We Need a Secretary of State Who Doesn’t
There are several possible explanations for Donald Trump’s frequently professed deep admiration for Russian president Vladimir Putin: his esteem for authoritarian dictators as men who get things done; his desire to embarrass President Obama by claiming Putin is a better leader; his pandering to alt-right voters who admire Putin as they pine for global white
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Democrat Lobbyist’s Latest Special Interest: Jared Kushner
Donald Trump’s pledge to drain the swamp in Washington has already turned out to be a cruel hoax on the working class voters who believed it, as his transition quickly leaned on insider lobbyists and his administration is filling with the corporate elites and Goldman Sachs bankers he attacked during the campaign. But you might
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98 Percent of College Programs That Flunked Performance Test are For-Profit
The U.S. Department of Education this hour has released the first round of measures under its new contested gainful employment rule, which tests which career college programs, though a combination of high prices and low quality, leave too many of their graduates with overwhelming student loan debt. The requirements of the final gainful employment rule are
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What For-Profit Colleges Really Think About the Gainful Employment Rule
With the U.S. Department of Education today planning to release gainful employment data, showing which career colleges are leaving their students with overwhelming debt, and with Trump Secretary of Education nominee Betsy DeVos likely to face questions about career college accountability at her confirmation hearing set for Wednesday, below is a critical new analysis from the
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NY Post Slam of U of Phoenix Deal Suggests Depths of DC Corruption
An article in today’s New York Post renews legitimate concerns about a pending private equity takeover of the largest for-profit college, the University of Phoenix. But the piece does so in a troubling manner, citing as critics of the deal supposed experts who themselves have traded on revolving door connections to take for-profit college cash. The Post piece
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New Student Lawsuit Details ITT Tech Scam
Former students from across the country today filed a blockbuster lawsuit against the collapsed for-profit college giant ITT Tech. The students’ complaint, seeking to intervene in the ongoing bankruptcy proceeding filed by the company, draws on testimonials from hundreds of students — veterans, single mothers, and more — who say they were deceived and abused
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