Eric Ruben
Associate Professor of Law
Full-time faculty
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214-768-2581 |
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Eric Ruben’s scholarly interests span criminal law, constitutional law, legal ethics, legal empirics, and legal history. His current scholarship explores the regulation of violence and weapons, and how that regulation intersects with self-defense and Second Amendment rights. Ruben teaches criminal law, professional responsibility, and a seminar on the Second Amendment.
Ruben’s work has been published or is forthcoming in the California Law Review, Duke Law Journal, Georgetown Law Journal, Harvard Law Review Forum, Minnesota Law Review, Southern California Law Review, Virginia Law Review Online, Yale Law Journal, and Yale Law Journal Forum, and has been cited by the Supreme Court of the United States, the United States Courts of Appeals, and in legal briefs. He has testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and frequently provides legal commentary for popular outlets, including ABC News, MSNBC, CNN, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Atlantic, Vox, Scotusblog, NPR, and CBS Radio.
Prior to joining SMU, Ruben was a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice and an adjunct professor at New York University School of Law. Before that, he worked as a criminal defense attorney at Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello, P.C. and served as a law clerk for the Honorable Julio M. Fuentes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Ruben received his J.D. from NYU School of Law, where he was an Articles Editor for the NYU Law Review, and his B.A. from Dartmouth College, where he graduated magna cum laude.
Area of expertise
- Criminal Law
- Criminal Procedure
- Legal Ethics
- Second Amendment
- Weapons Law
Education
B.A., Dartmouth College
J.D., NYU School of Law
Courses
Criminal Law
Professional Responsibility
Second Amendment
Articles
Scientific Context, Suicide Prevention, and the Second Amendment After Bruen, 108 Minnesota Law Review (2024)
SSRN | SMU Repository
One Year Post-Bruen: An Empirical Assessment, 110 Virginia Law Review Online 20 (2024) (with Rosanna Smart and Ali Rowhani-Rahbar)
SSRN | SMU Repository
Originalism-by-Analogy and Second Amendment Adjudication, 133 Yale Law Journal 99 (2023) (with Joseph Blocher)
SSRN | SMU Repository
Self-Defense Exceptionalism and the Immunization of Private Violence, 96 Southern California Law Review 509 (2023)
SSRN | SMU Repository
Public Carry and Criminal Law After Bruen, 135 Harvard Law Review Forum 505 (2022)
SSRN | SMU Repository
“Second-Class” Rhetoric, Ideology, and Doctrinal Change, 110 Georgetown Law Journal 613 (2022) (with Joseph Blocher)
SSRN | SMU Repository
Law of the Gun: Unrepresentative Cases and Distorted Doctrine, 107 Iowa Law Review 173 (2021)
SSRN | SMU Repository
The Gun Rights Movement and “Arms” Under the Second Amendment, Brennan Center for Justice (2021)
SSRN | SMU Repository
An Unstable Core: Self-Defense and the Second Amendment, 108 California Law Review 63 (2020)
SSRN | SMU Repository
You Can Lead a Horse to Water: Heller and the Future of Second Amendment Scholarship, 68 Duke Law Journal Online 1 (2018) (with Joseph Blocher)
SSRN | SMU Repository
From Theory to Doctrine: An Empirical Analysis of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms After Heller, 67 Duke Law Journal 1433 (2018) (with Joseph Blocher)
SSRN | SMU Repository
Justifying Perceptions in First and Second Amendment Doctrine, 80 Law & Contemporary Problems 149 (2017)
SSRN | SMU Repository
Preface: The Second Generation of Second Amendment Law & Policy, 80 Law & Contemporary Problems 2 (2017) (with Darrell A. H. Miller)
SSRN | SMU Repository
Firearm Regionalism and Public Carry: Placing Southern Antebellum Case Law in Context, 125 Yale Law Journal Forum 121 (2015) (with Saul Cornell)
SSRN | SMU Repository
Other publications
Protests, Insurrection, and the Second Amendment, Brennan Center for Justice (2021) (edited issue)
Brennan Center for Justice
Second Generation of Second Amendment Law and Policy, 80 Law & Contemporary Problems 1-251 (2017) (with Darrell Miller) (edited issue)
Duke Law Repository
Media
NPR, Interview, Can ghost guns be regulated as firearms? The Supreme Court will decide (October 2024)
AP News, quoted in Kansas judge throws out machine gun possession charge, cites Second Amendment (August 2024)
HuffPost, quoted in The Supreme Court’s Major Gun Decision Was A Warning To Extremist Judges (June 2024)
Los Angeles Times, quoted in Will latest Supreme Court decision affect California bans on assault weapons, magazines? (June 2024)
Bloomberg Law, quoted in Supreme Court Shows Division on History Test in Gun Decision (June 2024)
San Francisco Chronicle, quoted in Gun restrictions for Domestic Abusers Survive in SCOTUS ruling. What it means for California (June 2024)
Dallas Morning News, quoted in Black market gun sales to continue in Texas, creating worries about gun violence (June 2024)
New York Times, quoted in Does Having a Gun Make a Person Suspicious? Courts Aren’t Sure Now. (March 2024)
AP News, quoted in Could Missouri’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ Law Apply to the Super Bowl Celebration Shooters? (February 2024)
Bloomberg News, quoted in Bump Stock Ban Brings Agency Power Dispute to Supreme Court (February 2024)
New York Times, quoted in Texas Man at Center of Supreme Court Case Says He No Longer Wants Guns (November 2023)
The Economist, quoted in The Daniel Perry case shows the contradictions of gun enthusiasts in Texas (April 2023)
ABC News, quoted in At least 74 Illinois sheriff’s departments vow to defy state assault weapons ban (January 2023)
New York Times, quoted in Court Gives New York State More Time to Argue for Its Gun Law (October 2022)
NPR, quoted in The ‘Gun Dude’ and a Supreme Court Case that Changed Who Can Own Firearms in the U.S. (August 2022)
N.Y. Daily News, Op-Ed, A Smarter Path to Gun Safety Through Property Rights (July 2022)
CNN, quoted in The Fight to Curb Gun Violence Without Inflaming Racial Biases (July 2022)
New York Times, quoted in States Rush to Revamp Laws After Supreme Court’s Gun Ruling (June 2022)
USA Today, quoted in Gun Rights Groups’ Wave of Lawsuits Could Change America’s Relationship With Firearms (February 2022)