David Tatel has served nearly 30 years on America's second highest court. Yet he has been blind for the past 50 of his 80-plus years. 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.
Extraordinary ... At once a legal history of the last half-century and a story of blindness and enlightenment ... After more than 300 pages of unaffected prose, however jauntily wry, I might have welcomed a bit of excessive drama ... On the other hand, the rigorous dispassion of his opinions has been key to his success in defending the democratic ideals that we are now in danger of losing.
Although his memoir is both affecting and inspiring, of particular interest to readers of a legal bent are Tatel’s well-informed criticism of the current Supreme Court’s conservative majority ... A provocative, well-written pleasure for students of contemporary jurisprudence.
