Professor Bellin teaches and writes in the areas of Evidence, Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure.

After graduating from law school, Professor Bellin served as a law clerk to the Honorable Merrick B. Garland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Following his clerkship, Professor Bellin served as a prosecutor with the United States Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C.  While at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, he argued a number of significant cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and the D.C. Court of Appeals, including:  U.S. v. Geraldo, 271 F.3d 1112 (D.C. Cir. 2001) and Fisher v. U.S., 779 A.2d 348 (D.C. 2001).

Professor Bellin also practiced with the San Diego office of Latham & Watkins where he handled complex civil litigation and pro bono matters, including the successful representation of two teenage brothers seeking political asylum in the United States.  Immediately before joining SMU, Professor Bellin was a Senior Attorney for the California Courts of Appeal.

Primary Articles

The Incredible Shrinking Confrontation Clause (work in progress).

Facebook, Twitter, and the Uncertain Future of Present Sense Impressions, 160 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA LAW REVIEW 331 (2012).
 
Crime Severity Distinctions and the Fourth Amendment: Reassessing Reasonableness in a Changing World, 97 IOWA LAW REVIEW 1 (2011).

Widening Batson’s Net to Ensnare More Than the Unapologetically Bigoted or Painfully Unimaginative Attorney, 96 CORNELL LAW REVIEW 1075 (2011) (with Junichi Semitsu).

Is Punishment Relevant After All? A Prescription For Informing Juries of the Consequences of Conviction, 90 BOSTON UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW 2223 (2010).

Reconceptualizing the Fifth Amendment Prohibition of Adverse Comment On Criminal Defendants’ Trial Silence, 71 OHIO STATE LAW JOURNAL 229 (2010).

Circumventing Congress: How the Federal Courts Opened the Door to Impeaching Criminal Defendants with Prior Convictions, 42 U.C. DAVIS LAW REVIEW 289 (2008).

Improving the Reliability of Criminal Trials Through Legal Rules That Encourage Defendants to Testify, 76 UNIVERSITY OF CINCINATTI LAW REVIEW 851 (2008).

The Significance (If Any) For the Federal Criminal Justice System of Advances in Lie Detector Technology, 80 TEMPLE UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW 711 (2007).