David B. Cruz
USC Gould School of Law

David Cruz is a constitutional law expert focusing on civil rights and equality issues, including equal marriage rights for same-sex couples. He specializes in discrimination law and the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons. He teaches Constitutional Law I; Constitutional Law II; Federal Courts; Sexual Orientation and the Law; International/Comparative Perspectives on Sex, Gender, and Sexual Orientation; Identity Categories; and Law, Identity, and Culture.

Before joining the USC Gould School of Law faculty in 1996, Cruz was a Bristow Fellow in the Office of the Solicitor General in Washington, D.C. He also clerked for The Honorable Edward R. Becker, Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He is past Chair of the AALS Section on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Issues and co-president of ILGLaw, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans, and Intersex Law Association.

Cruz graduated from UC Irvine, and earned his master’s degree from Stanford University. He is a graduate of New York University School of Law, where he was managing editor of New York University Law Review.

Cruz’s academic publications include “Spinning Lawrence, or Lawrence v. Texas and the Promotion of Heterosexuality” (Widener Law Review, 2005); “Mystification, Neutrality, and Same-Sex Couples in Marriage,” in Mary Lyndon Shanley’s Just Marriage (Oxford University Press 2004); “Making Up Women: Casinos, Cosmetics, and Title VII” (Nevada Law Journal, 2004); and “Disestablishing Sex and Gender” (California Law Review, 2002).

Books

• Gender Identity and the Law (with Jillian T. Weiss) (Carolina Academic Press, forthcoming 2020).

Articles and Book Chapters

• "Rewritten Opinion in O’Donnabhain v. Commissioner," in Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Tax
  Opinions (Bridget J. Crawford & Anthony C. Infanti, eds., Cambridge U. Press 2017).
• "Log Cabin Republicans: International Experience with Military Inclusiveness and the End of Don't Ask, Don't Tell," 23 Southwestern Journal of International Law 159 (2017). - (Hein)
• “Transgender Rights After Obergefell.” 84 University of Missouri-Kansas City 693 (Spring 2016). - (Hein)
• “‘Amorphous Federalism’ and the Supreme Court’s Marriage Cases.” 47 Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 393 (2014). - (SSRN) - (Hein)
• “United States v. Windsor, Marriage, and the Dangers of Discernment.” 48 UC Davis Law Review 505 (2014). - (Hein)
• “Acknowledging the Gender in Anti-Transgender Discrimination.” 32 Law & Inequality 257 (2014). - (Hein)
• “Repealing Rights: Proposition 8, Perry, and Crawford Contextualized.” 37 New York University Review of Law & Social Change 235 (2013). - (SSRN) - (Hein)
• “Mystification, Neutrality, and Same-Sex Couples in Marriage.” In Just Marriage (Mary L. Shanley with others, eds.) (Oxford University Press, 2004).
• “Making Up Women: Casinos, Cosmetics, and Title VII” (Symposium: Pursuing Equal Justice in the West). 5 Nevada Law Journal 240 (2004). - (Hein)
• “A Real ‘People’ Person” (A Tribute to the Life of Mary C. Dunlap). 19 Berkeley Women’s Law Journal 7 (2004). - (Hein)
• “Disestablishing Sex and Gender.” 90 California Law Review 997 (2002). [Reprinted in 2 The Dukeminier Awards: Best Sexual Orientation Law Review Articles of 2002 253 (2004).] - (Hein)
• "Civil Marriage and the First Amendment" and "Social and Judicial 'Just-So' Stories." In Marriage and Same-Sex Unions: A Debate (Lynn D. Wardle with others, eds.) (Praeger Publishers, 2003).
• “The New ‘Marital Property’: Civil Marriage and the Right to Exclude?” 30 Capital University Law Review 279 (2002). - (Hein)
• "'Just Don't Call It a Marriage:' The First Amendment and Marriage as an Expressive Resource." 74 Southern California Law Review 925 (2001). - (Hein)
• "Same-Sex Marriage I." In Encyclopedia of the American Constitution, 2d ed. (Leonard W. Levy, Kenneth L. Karst, Adam Winkler, eds.) (Macmillan Reference, 2000).
• "Sexual Orientation" (Update). In Encyclopedia of the American Constitution, 2d ed. (Leonard W. Levy, Kenneth L. Karst, Adam Winkler, eds.) (Macmillan Reference, 2000).
• "'The Sexual Freedom Cases'? Contraception, Abortion, Abstinence, and the Constitution." 35 Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 299 (Summer 2000). - (Hein)
• "Controlling Desires: Sexual Orientation Conversion and the Limits of Knowledge and Law." 72 Southern California Law Review 1297 (1999). - (Hein)
• "State of Sovereignty." 21 Los Angeles Lawyer 32 (1998).
• "Piety and Prejudice: Free Exercise Exemption from Laws Prohibiting Sexual Orientation Discrimination." 69 New York University Law Review 1176 (1994). - (Hein)

Other Works

• "Equal Citizens: Fully Integrating All People into Civic Life Requires More Legislative Work." Los Angeles Daily Journal, July 18, 2003, at 6.

FACULTY IN THE NEWS

Politi Fact
May 23, 2023
Re: David B. Cruz

Professor David Cruz was recently interviewed about a controversial bill that was passed in Connecticut. "Paying even modest attention to the bill’s definitions should make it clear beyond doubt that it will not be the source of protections based upon the age of people to whom one is attracted or with whom one has sex," Cruz said.

RECENT SCHOLARSHIP

Jonathan Barnett
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Comment Letter from Law Professors, Economists, and Business School Professors to the Federal Trade Commission on Proposed Non-Compete Clause Rule, Jonathan Barnett (co-lead author, with Adam Mossoff and Ted Sichelman), April 19, 2023.

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"Survival Equity and Climate Change Triage: How to Decide Who Lives and Who Dies," presentation as part of Adapting to a Warming World: Perspectives from the Environmental Law Collaborative, Hubbell Environmental Law Initiative, University of Iowa School of Law, Iowa City, IA, April 14, 2023.

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Robin Craig's recent research on tribal water rights and COVID-19, comparing the Navajo Nation and the Klamath Tribes, was featured on NPR's "Academic Minute" on Monday, April 17, 2023.