A Fireside Chat with Judge David S. Tatel

The Children’s Law Center community joined Judge David S. Tatel, who recently retired from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, to discuss his new memoir, Vision: A Memoir of Blindness and Justice.

He wrote about his storied career as a civil rights lawyer and as a jurist, and reflected on his evolving understanding of disability, having become blind due to a degenerative retinal disease first diagnosed at age 15.

Judge Tatel is an excellent storyteller, and his passion and humor are clear throughout the book. But his insights about protecting the rule of law are especially essential now when civil rights and access to justice are under attack.

A few highlights from the conversation:

THE CRITICAL ROLE OF CIVIL SERVICE

As he explains in his memoir, Judge Tatel was deeply inspired by President Kennedy’s call to civil service and interned for two summers during college for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In our conversation, he emphasized just how much that experience had shaped his career.

Judge Tatel was studying to be a physicist when he went to Washington. But his imagination was captured by his colleagues’ commitment to service and especially by the roles government lawyers and judges had in ensuring the 14^th and 15^th Amendments were enforced during the Civil Rights Movement. He decided to go to law school instead.

THE LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF CIVIL RIGHTS LAWS

As a civil rights lawyer and then as Director of the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare under President Carter, Judge Tatel worked with school districts, colleges and universities and other institutions to implement and enforce laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, gender and disability.

He spoke to victories that have had lifetime effects, like the increased career success for women who were college athletes under Title IX. He also reflected that even some of his losses laid the groundwork for future progress, detailing the work that went into desegregation negotiations with the North Carolina public university system. Although negotiations with OCR stalled, he believes it paved the way for significant state-level improvements in the decades that followed.

Judge Tatel acknowledged current day concerns about federal courts,  but urges us not to give up:

It’s so important – we’re a rule of law nation – when the government violates the laws, essential laws, that people affected sue and do the best they can. They don’t know at the beginning whether they’re going to win or lose. But if we don’t file lawsuits because we fear losses, then I think we give up [on] the system.

– Judge David S. Tatel

ACCESS TO JUSTICE PROTECTS THE RULE OF LAW

At the end of the event, Judge Tatel expanded on this quote from his book addressing a weakness in our system: “But rights are hollow promises if people can’t go to court to vindicate them. The rule of law cannot long live if it works only for the wealthy.”

You can watch his response. He highlights the special responsibility that lawyers have to ensure access to justice for the children and families who have the least:

To watch the full event video, click here.

A special thanks to Mayer Brown for hosting the event, event sponsors Skadden, Accenture and Wilson Sonsini for also making this conversation possible, to Judge Tatel for sharing his wisdom and to Judge Tatel’s dog Vixen for her patience and expert guidance.

If you’d like to be added to our list to be invited to future events, email Riley Conklin at rconklin [at] childrenslawcenter.org.