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 Legal Filing Underscores DeVos Hostility to Debt Relief for Scammed Students
It’s good to know that Donald Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos, joined the small minority of Republicans who opposed Trump’s conspiracy to overthrow the United States government. But when it comes to her views on education, including the appalling abuses of veterans, single mothers, and other students by for-profit colleges, DeVos is no hero. If
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The 17 Questions The Education Dept. Asked A University President Before He Resigned
On May 19, Michael Frola, a career official of the U.S. Department of Education, sent a letter to the president of the University of Phoenix, which, with a total enrollment of some 90,000 students, is one of the largest higher education institutions in the United States. In the letter, first reported on last Friday and
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With Debt Relief for Corinthian Students Finally Here, Time to Stop Funding Predatory Colleges
The Hill has reported this afternoon that the Biden Administration, at an event tomorrow featuring Vice President Kamala Harris, will announce widespread debt relief for former students of for-profit Corinthian Colleges, which collapsed in 2015 following revelations of blatant deceptive practices. [UPDATE 06-01-22 6:45 pm: The U.S. Department of Education just released a statement announcing
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Florida Colleges Are Nation’s Worst on Nursing Exam Pass Rate
While Florida governor Ron DeSantis promotes himself as a champion of education and economic opportunity, his state is lagging far behind every other state on a key measure of educational quality, social mobility, and public health standards: whether people who complete nursing school can then pass the NCLEX nurse licensing exam. In the first quarter
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Debt Relief for Defrauded Students Is Long Overdue – And So Is Accountability for Kaplan
Lawyers representing former students of Kaplan Career Institute in Massachusetts have sued the U.S. Department of Education, alleging an unlawful and unconscionable failure of the Department to cancel the students’ federal loans — seven years after the Massachusetts attorney general settled with the school over charges that it deceived and defrauded students. The year after
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Biden Administration Must Act to Protect Americans From Chemical Disasters
Last week, a group of national security and environmental experts — including former EPA administrator and New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman, former OSHA head David Michaels, and retired Army generals Russel Honoré and Randy Manner — wrote to Biden EPA director Michael Regan calling on the administration to issue a strong rule this year
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Bill in Congress Would Bar Americans From Reciting Our Own Laws
Last week, 14 organizations wrote to leaders of the House Judiciary Committee to oppose dangerous legislation titled the “PRO Codes Act.” The new bill provides that any “original work of authorship” that is “adopted or incorporated by reference, in full or in part, into any Federal, State, or municipal law or regulation” would have copyright
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College Head Arthur Keiser Settles Lawsuit With Mother, Who Claimed Fraud and Theft
Arthur Keiser, the politically powerful operator of several chains of career colleges in Florida and the Southeast, has settled a lawsuit brought against him by his 98-year-old mother, Evelyn Keiser, in which she charged him with fraud and theft, alleging that her son cheated her out of income generated by businesses they have owned together.
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