David Tatel served near­ly 30 years on America’s sec­ond high­est court, the Unit­ed States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Cir­cuit, where many of our most cru­cial cas­es are resolved — or teed up for the Supreme Court. He has cham­pi­oned equal jus­tice for his entire adult life; decid­ed land­mark envi­ron­men­tal and vot­ing cas­es; and embod­ied the ide­al of what a great judge should be. Yet he has been blind for 50 of his 80-plus years. Ini­tial­ly, he depend­ed upon aides to read texts to him, and more recent­ly, a suite of hi-tech solu­tions has allowed him to lis­ten to reams of doc­u­ments at high speeds. At first, he tried to hide his dete­ri­o­rat­ing vision, and for years, he denied that it had any impact on his career. Only recent­ly, part­ly thanks to his first-ever guide dog, Vix­en, has he come to ful­ly accept his blind­ness and the role it’s played in his per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al lives. His sto­ry of fight­ing for jus­tice over decades, with and with­out eye­sight, is an inspi­ra­tion to us all.