About: David Halperin
Twitter: @DaHalperin
Bio: David Halperin, a self-employed lawyer based in Washington DC, engages in public advocacy work on a wide range of issues, including higher education and climate change. He also advises organizations and companies on strategy, policy, communications, and legal matters, and he is of counsel to Public.Resource.org.
Halperin was previously: founding director of Campus Progress and senior vice president at the Center for American Progress; senior policy advisor for Howard Dean's 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/RealNetworks; counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee; and law clerk to U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell.
He has represented clients in the U.S. Supreme Court and various state and federal courts.
He 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 the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Transportation, and spoken at major events held by the National Consumer Law Center, Consumer Federation of America, Arizona State University, American Educational Research Association, and Center for American Progress.
Halperin has served for more than a decade on the board of directors of Public Citizen.
He graduated from Yale College and Yale Law School.
Trump Education Dept Says It Will Name Colleges Whose Grads Aren’t Repaying Loans
The Trump Department of Education announced two weeks ago that it planned to go hard at student loan borrowers who have not been repaying, declaring that on May 5 it would resume collections of defaulted loans. It was the previous Trump administration that halted collections, in March 2020 at the start of the pandemic. But
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He Gave $1 Million to Elect Trump. The Justice Dept Just Took His For-Profit College To Trial for Fraud (And Lost).
Former for-profit college owner Carl Barney donated more than a million dollars to political committees working to elect Donald Trump in 2024. Yet while the transactional Trump has spent much of his first 100 days taking actions, including through the justice system, that benefit big donors, cronies, and other supporters, the U.S. Justice Department this
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New Washington State Law Punches Hole in Multi-State Pact Shielding Online Colleges
Last week, Washington governor Bob Ferguson signed legislation that will require online, out-of-state colleges that enroll Washington residents to obey the state’s consumer protection laws. State Representative Gerry Pollet, (D-Seattle), sponsor of the legislation, explained in a statement, “Online universities, including many for-profits, who advertise and recruit heavily to entice Washington residents to enroll have sought
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St. Andrews U Says It’s Closing in 10 Days
St. Andrews University, a small liberal arts college in Laurinburg, North Carolina, announced today that it will close in ten days, on May 5. In a statement on the school’s website, the president, Tarun Malik, said, “we have reached a point where financial sustainability is no longer attainable.” It’s a sad day for the school’s
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For-Profit College Corporation Perdoceo Gave Your Tax Dollars to Trump Inaugural Committee
A new report filed with the Federal Election Commission shows that the troubled for-profit college operation Perdoceo Education Corp. donated $50,000 to the 2025 Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee. Almost all of Perdoceo’s revenue comes from U.S. taxpayers. The report filed this week by the Trump committee lists, among hundreds of other gifts from corporations and individuals,
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U of Idaho President Seems Resigned That U of Phoenix Deal is Dead
In a radio interview posted today, University of Idaho president C. Scott Green appeared to indicate that the proposed deal for his school to acquire the for-profit giant University of Phoenix is not going to happen. While Green said the action “is still in Phoenix’s court,” he admitted his school “never got the green light”
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Trump’s Education Department is Closing. And Also Starting A Long Rulemaking Process.
Although President Donald J. Trump last month signed an executive order directing Secretary of Education Linda McMahon “to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law, take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education,” and although DOGE efforts and layoffs have cut the Department staff by half, the Department announced
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We’re At The Point of Authoritarianism Now
We’ve had the rule of law in this country since 1776, when the colonies declared independence from King George III of England. Our democracy has been deeply flawed in many ways since then. But we’ve never gone as backward, and downward, as we have since inauguration day 2025. We’re right at the point of authoritarianism
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