Eric Ruben
Full-time faculty
Assistant Professor of Law
Biography
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, Iowa Law Review, Southern California Law Review, 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 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.
Areas of Expertise
- Criminal Law
- Criminal Procedure
- Legal Ethics
- Second Amendment
- Weapons Law
Education
J.D., NYU School of Law
Courses
Criminal Law
Professional Responsibility
Second Amendment
Articles
Self-Defense Exceptionalism and the Immunization of Private Violence, 96 Southern California Law Review (forthcoming 2023)
SSRN
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
Cited in Mance v. Sessions (5th Cir. 2018) (Higginson, concurring)
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
Cited in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, 597 U.S. __ (2022) and Young v. Hawaii (9th Cir. 2018)
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
National Law Journal, quoted in Judge May Appoint Historian After Justices’ Turn to New Test in Gun Rights Cases (November 2022)
New York Times, quoted in Court Gives New York State More Time to Argue for Its Gun Law (October 2022)
Spectrum News New York, Interview,Second Amendment Expert Discusses NY Gun Law Court Challenge (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)
Law 360, quoted in How Bruen Ruling Will Change Gun Restrictions Scrutiny (July 2022)
NPR Wisconsin, Guest, What the Supreme Court’s Ruling on a New York Gun Law Means for How We Apply the Second Amendment (June 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)
TV and Radio Interviews Regarding Bruen (June 23-24, 2022)
WPIX 11 New York (television)
Good Morning America, ABC
Morning Edition, NPR
ABC News Prime, ABC
Balance of Power, Bloomberg Radio
All Things Considered, NPR
CBS Radio
CNN (television)
USA Today, quoted in Should Guns Be Banned in Bars, Hospitals? Supreme Court Could Spur New 2nd Amendment Fight (June 2022
NBC News, Interview, NBC News Now with Joshua Johnson (June 2022)
Boston Globe, quoted in From Concealed Carry to Eliminating Permits, Gun Restrictions Have Loosened Since Sandy Hook (May 2022)
Washington Post, Op-Ed, No, Courts Don’t Treat the Second Amendment as a “Second-Class Right (November 2021) (with Joseph Blocher)