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.
The Trump Swamp: Government By The Lobbyists
As we walked down my Washington DC block on election eve, before the returns starting coming in, a stranger in a darkened doorway suddenly addressed me and my friends. “Are you ready,” he asked tauntingly, “to drain the swamp?” A few hours later, the remark seemed ominous. But of course, just days after, it has proved to be
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Electoral College Can Stop Unfit Trump – With Another Republican
Tuesday’s election has produced a mixed result. Donald Trump won the voting in enough states to put him over the minimum 270 electoral vote threshold; with Michigan, Arizona, and New Hampshire still undecided, Trump is at 279 to 228 for Clinton. Hillary Clinton appears to have won the popular vote; at this hour she’s up
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For-Profit Computer Systems Institute Stays Alive
On April 15, 2016, the U.S. Department of Education cut off federal student grants and loans to the Skokie, Illinois-based for-profit college chain Computer Systems Institute (CSI), citing detailed evidence of fraudulent conduct. Denying CSI’s appeal from its initial January 2016 decision, the Department used unusually harsh language in concluding that CSI gave its accrediting agency, Accrediting Council
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CEO of Shut-Down For-Profit College Defends His “Salesmen”
In a TV interview on Friday, Larry Earle, the CEO of shuttered San Antonio-based for-profit Career Point College, gave the game away about what many for-profit colleges are all about. Defending his closed school against findings by the U.S. Department of Education that Career Point had engaged in financial aid fraud and mismanagement, and facing lawsuits filed
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Trump’s Gettysburg Address, Believe Me
Donald Trump spoke today at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and offered a new “contract between Donald J. Trump and the American voter,” which is pretty funny given that Trump has failed to honor hundreds of contracts. So I’m not sure we should sign it. But we need to hear him out. I tried to transcribe Trump’s remarks as
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Devastating Reports: ITT Tech Killed Itself
Two new reports — one from a journalist, the other from an investment research firm — confirm in stark terms that former ITT Tech CEO Kevin Modany, his top lieutenants, and the company’s board of directors have only themselves to blame for the company’s collapse. ITT shut its campuses and declared bankruptcy after the U.S. Department
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Leaked Powell Emails Detail Ties to Key For-Profit College Investor
The hacked emails from former Secretary of State Colin Powell have been widely noted because of Powell’s candid remarks about topics including Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, and nuclear weapons. But Republic Report is intrigued by a series of exchanges about the for-profit college industry between Powell and Jeffrey Leeds, a key private equity investor in, and advocate
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New CEO Says DeVry Is Seeking to Resolve Deception Charges
Lisa Wardell, who joined DeVry Education Group as CEO on May 24, says the for-profit college company is “working to resolve” claims made in a lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission that DeVry misled students about job placement rates and salaries for its schools’ graduates. In an interview with Republic Report yesterday, Wardell maintained DeVry’s prior position that it
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