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.
New Debt Relief for Scammed U of Phoenix Students Heightens Peril of Idaho Deal
The U.S. Department of Education announced today that it will provide $37 million in student debt cancellation for some 1,200 former students who contend they were scammed by the University of Phoenix, which has long been the largest for-profit college and has received tens of billions in taxpayer funding. “The University of Phoenix brazenly deceived
Continue Reading >>>
Florida Career College’s Owner Faces More Scrutiny from Feds, California, Accreditor
International Education Corporation (IEC), currently fighting a decision by the U.S. Department of Education to cut off student aid to its school Florida Career College (FCC), is now facing additional scrutiny not only from the Department, but also from California’s attorney general and from accreditor ACCSC, which oversees ten campuses of two other IEC-owned schools,
Continue Reading >>>
Federal Appeals Court Affirms The Right to Publish The Law
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit yesterday issued a critical decision in a lawsuit I’ve been working on ever since the non-profit group Public Resource, where I serve as of counsel, was sued in August 2013. Here’s a release from the Electronic Frontier Foundation that explains what happened: SAN
Continue Reading >>>
Florida Palms University Has Closed
Florida Palms University, which opened in 2020 as a branch campus of Miami-based for-profit Atlantis University, has closed, according to the school’s website. The homepage of the site says the school, “after careful deliberation, has voluntarily ceased operations.” Other than an email address for obtaining transcripts, and a phone number for additional information, there seems
Continue Reading >>>
Feds Cancel Loans for 2,300 Students Scammed by Ashford U. So Why Does the School Still Get Tax Dollars?
The U.S. Department of Education announced today that it is cancelling $72 million in student loan obligations for more than 2,300 former students who attended for-profit Ashford University between 2009 and 2020. These ex-students had filed claims under federal rules, called borrower defense, offering debt relief for students who can show that their school ripped
Continue Reading >>>
Breaking: Donald Trump Still Appears To Be A Criminal
Business fraud, real estate fraud, charity fraud, education fraud, tax fraud, election cheating, sedition, government corruption, classified document theft, obstruction of justice, sexual assault, conspiracy to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 election, and tonight, another indictment in Georgia over efforts to undermine the 2020 election. Donald Trump (still) appears to be a
Continue Reading >>>
5th Circuit Blocks Biden Rule Aimed at Protecting Students From College Scams
In 2016, the Obama administration issued a regulation that, for the first time, meaningfully implemented a federal law that allows former students to have their federal loan debt cancelled if there is sufficient evidence that their school scammed them. This borrower defense rule established standards and procedures for students to seek such debt relief, and
Continue Reading >>>
Put Trump’s Trial on TV (Or At Least Record It)
The Justice Department’s election conspiracy trial of Donald Trump, following the indictment filed late yesterday, will be one of the most important proceedings in the history of our country, and yet only a handful of people will ever see it, because, almost certainly, it won’t be on TV, not even videotaped. Every U.S. state allows
Continue Reading >>>