Judge David Tatel

Judge David Tatel, author of Vision: A Memoir of Blindness and Justice, served on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1994 to 2024, succeeding future Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. After graduating from the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago Law School, he served as the founding director of the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and then director of the National Lawyers Committee.

He headed the Office for Civil Rights of the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare during the Carter administration and then founded and led the education practice at Hogan Lovells Cadwalader, where he is now Senior Counsel. Judge Tatel co-chaired the National Academy of Sciences committee on Science, Technology and Law from 2016 to 2023. He also chaired the boards of The Spencer Foundation and The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Judge Tatel is a member of the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Judge Tatel’s book, Vision: A Memoir of Blindness and Justice, was published by Little Brown in 2024. Judge Tatel and his wife, Edie, live in Castleton, Virginia and Washington, D.C. They have four children, eight grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.