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.
House Science Hearing on ExxonMobil & Subpoenas: What You Should Know
This morning, the House Science Committee is holding an unusual hearing, at which the committee’s chairman, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), apparently aims to justify subpoenas he already has issued to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, and eight organizations and foundations concerned with the issue of whether Exxon deceived on the public on
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ITT Tech Collapse: Radio Version
I’ve been on some radio shows this week to discuss the collapse of predatory ITT Tech, the fate of students, and the future of for-profit colleges. If you love talk radio, tune in: Background Briefing with Ian Masters, Sept. 6 The Agenda with Ari Rabin-Havt, SiriusXM Progress 127, Sept. 8 The Source, Texas Public Radio,
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Good Riddance: 6 Facts About Shut-Down ITT Tech
This morning, one of the nation’s biggest for-profit colleges, ITT Tech, announced that it has permanently shut down its academic operations and fired the “overwhelming majority” of its more than 8,000 employees. In a typically self-pitying, remorseless statement, the company blamed all its woes on the U.S. Department of Education, which, ITT claimed, acted with “a
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At Risk: For-Profit College Converts To Non-Profit Status
The U.S. Department of Education yesterday took a momentous step, deciding that the CollegeAmerica / Stevens-Henager / CEHE chain of colleges, despite formally converting from a for-profit to a non-profit enterprise, is still acting like a self-interested business corporation, rather than a charitable institution, and thus should remain subject to the handful of rules that
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Risks of Fraud in Competency-Based Education
An audit report released earlier this month by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General could potentially trigger efforts in Congress to eliminate a critical legal requirement for college programs to receive federal Title IV student grants and loans. That would be a dangerous development, according to a long-time higher education policy expert
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College Rebuked Today By Education Dept. Is Suing Ex-Employee Who Complained to Accreditor
As we reported this morning, the U.S. Department of Education today rejected the request of the CollegeAmerica/Stevens-Henager college chain to have its status changed from for-profit to non-profit for purposes of federal financial aid rules. The Department concluded that the chain’s conversion to non-profit status appeared primarily to benefit the for-profit chain’s owner, Carl Barney, rather
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Department of Education Rejects For-Profit College Chain’s Conversion to Non-Profit
In a critical decision to protect students and taxpayers from fraud and abuse in higher education, the U.S. Department of Education this morning rejected the request of the CollegeAmerica / Stevens-Henager college chain to have its status changed from for-profit to non-profit for purposes of federal financial aid rules. The Department concluded that the chain’s
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Twist: DeVry Goes to Court To Stop Students From Bringing Arbitration
For years, DeVry University, like other big for-profit colleges, forced its students to sign agreements that they would take any dispute with the school to private arbitration, rather than sue in court. When, this year, it appeared that the U.S. Department of Education was moving in the direction of banning or limiting such mandatory arbitration agreements
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