Judge David S. Tatel Reflects on Pursuit of Justice, Embracing Vision Loss at Georgetown Law

“I wanted to be known not as a blind judge, but as a judge who happened to be blind,” said Tatel, who retired from the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in January after nearly 30 years on the bench, in describing his initial reluctance to acknowledge blindness as part of his identity.

Even as Tatel enforced federal antidiscrimination law as director for the Office for Civil Rights for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare during the Carter administration and championed causes such as voting rights and environmental justice during his decades on the bench, he remained hesitant to publicly discuss his vision loss for most of his career.

“It took three decades on the D.C. Circuit, getting a guide dog and writing a memoir to make that change — so it wasn’t easy,” he said of fully embracing blindness as part of his identity.

As detailed in his new book, Vision: A Memoir of Blindness and Justice, Tatel, who was diagnosed at age 15 with the incurable genetic retinal disease retinitis pigmentosa, chose not to disclose his disability when he began practicing law in the 1960s out of fear that someone with a visual disability might be discriminated against in hiring.

“When I started practicing law, this was pre-[Americans with Disabilities Act]” he told the audience, referencing the landmark 1990 antidiscrimination law. “Fortunately, the world has changed.”

Protecting the ‘rules of judging’

In addition to reflecting on his personal journey, Tatel discussed the U.S. Supreme Court’s most recent term, which included high-profile decisions such as the overruling of “Chevron doctrine” (the judiciary’s practice of deferring to federal agencies in interpreting ambiguous laws related to their work), and expressed concern about what he sees as a troubling move away from the principles of judicial restraint on the nation’s highest court.

“This case is another example in my mind of the Court’s departure from basic rules of judging,” Tatel said of the decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which ended Chevron deference. “Instead of following its precedent and adjusting Chevron if necessary, the Court stepped in, overruled the precedent … and in the process, accumulated more power to itself.”

Following his conversation with Sloan, Tatel took questions from students in the audience — several of whom were in attendance with their own service dogs — and offered advice about the importance of mentorship and the value of opportunities such as clerkships in giving new lawyers a first-hand look at judging in practice.

“As I look back at my own career, to the extent I’ve been successful at various things and successful at dealing with blindness, it’s because of mentors and role models,” he said, noting that, despite their help and support, none of his mentors were blind themselves — a fact that may have influenced his earlier decision to downplay his disability.

Increased awareness of and openness around disability, he said, is something he hopes the next generation of lawyers will have greater access to as they embark on their careers.

“I hope that my book and my own career on the D.C. Circuit will signal to young lawyers struggling not just with blindness, but with other disabilities, that it’s okay to talk about it, it’s okay if people know about it and it’s okay to ask for help,” he said.