CHARLEMONT — The Charlemont Forum’s 2025 speaker series will continue Thursday, June 26, with a presentation by David S. Tatel, a former U.S. Court of Appeals judge.

“Vision: One Man’s Journey with Blindness and Justice” will discuss Tatel’s experiences as a judge on the District of Columbia Circuit from 1994 to 2024 and his prior career as a civil rights lawyer, and all that he accomplished while being blind. The free event will be held at the Charlemont Federated Church from 7 to 9 p.m.

“The Charlemont Forum is excited to have Judge David Tatel come to speak with us about his work as a D.C. Circuit judge, juxtaposed with his loss of vision,” Mary Ann Adams, one of the organizers of the Charlemont Forum, said in a statement. “He has a book, a memoir, called ‘Vision,’ which describes his life.”

Tatel spent 30 years on the Court of Appeals and filled the vacancy left when Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg was elevated to the Supreme Court. Tatel authored opinions on cases such as the 2020 Karem v. Trump case, which upheld a judge’s order restoring a White House press pass to a reporter who got into an argument with one of President Donald Trump’s supporters, and the 2019 D.L. v. District of Columbia case, which found the District of Columbia had failed to provide adequate special education services to children. Tatel also weighed in on many cases involving voting rights and the treatment of Guantanamo Bay prisoners.

Prior to his work on the Court of Appeals, Tatel served as director of the Office of Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, director of the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and as a private civil rights lawyer.

At the Charlemont Forum, Tatel will detail his thoughts on the court system, the power of the judges, as well as the politics influencing and being impacted by the creation and review of laws. He will also share a bit on his personal journey navigating the justice system, as he has been blind for the past 50 years.

The program is sponsored by the cultural councils of Amherst, Buckland, Charlemont/Hawley, Colrain, Conway, Goshen, Heath, Leyden, Plainfield, Rowe and Shelburne. For more details, visit charlemontforum.org.

Reach Madison Schofield at 413-930-4579 or mschofield@recorder.com.