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 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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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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