Carlos A. Ball
Distinguished Professor of Law, and Judge Frederick Lacey Scholar
Professor Carlos A. Ball is a nationally recognized expert on LGBTQ rights law and constitutional law. He has authored or edited ten books and has published more than forty law review articles. Professor Ball received the Greg Lastowka Memorial Award for Scholarly Excellence and gave the Childress Memorial Lecture at St. Louis University Law School in 2023. Students on the Newark campus have selected Professor Ball as Teacher of the Year three times (in 2011, 2108, and 2025). Before joining Rutgers in 2008, he taught at the University of Illinois College of Law and Penn State School of Law.
Biography
Professor Ball is a nationally recognized expert on LGBTQ rights law and constitutional law. He is the author or editor of ten books. His books include an Advanced Introduction to LGBTQ+ Rights (Elgar, 2026), Principles Matter: The Constitution, Progressives, and the Trump Era (Oxford University Press, 2021), The Queering of Corporate America (Beacon Press, 2019), The First Amendment and LGBT Equality: A Contentious History (Harvard University Press, 2017), and After Marriage Equality: The Future of LGBT Rights (NYU Press, 2016).
Professor Ball teaches classes on Constitutional Law; the First Amendment; and Sexuality, Gender Identity and the Law. He began teaching at Rutgers Law School in 2008, after teaching at the University of Illinois College of Law and the Penn State Law School for a combined thirteen years. He received a B.A. from Tufts University, a J.D. from Columbia Law School, and an LL.M. from Cambridge University. After law school, he clerked on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and then worked as a criminal defense attorney for the Legal Aid Society in New York City.
Publications
Professor Ball is the author of Advanced Introduction to LGBTQ+ Rights (Elgar, 2026). His other books are Principles Matter: The Constitution, Progressives, and the Trump Era (Oxford University Press, 2021); The Queering of Corporate America (Beacon Press, 2019); The First Amendment and LGBT Equality: A Contentious History (Harvard University Press, 2017); After Marriage Equality: The Future of LGBT Rights (NYU Press, 2016); Same-Sex Marriage and Children: A Tale of History, Social Science, and Law (Oxford University Press, 2014); The Right to be Parents: LGBT Families and the Transformation of Parenthood (NYU Press, 2012); From the Closet to the Courtroom: Five LGBT Rights Cases That Have Changed Our Nation (Beacon, 2010); and The Morality of Gay Rights: An Exploration in Political Philosophy (Routledge, 2003). He is also a co-editor of Cases and Materials on Sexuality, Gender Identity, and the Law (West, 8th edition, 2026).
His writings have also appeared in the Cornell Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, Harvard Journal of Law & Gender, Harvard Law Review Forum, Minnesota Law Review, Missouri Law Review, North Carolina Law Review, UCLA Law Review, William and Mary Law Review, and Yale Law Review Forum among other journals.