Judge David S. Tatel

City Arts & Lectures

Our guest today is Judge David S. Tatel. A former civil rights attorney, Judge Tatel has served for nearly 30 years on America’s second-highest court, the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. It’s where many of American jurisprudence’s most crucial cases are resolved – or teed up for the US Supreme Court. Tatel has presided over some of the most important trials in recent decades, adjudicating on major issues like the First Amendment, voting rights, and the environment. David Tatel has been blind for the last 50 of his 80-plus years. On September 16, 2024, Judge David Tatel spoke with Gretchen Sisson about his new book “Vision: A Memoir of Blindness and Justice”. He began their conversation by talking about how his father’s profession as a scientist, laid the foundations for his career in the law.