Michigan Supreme Court in a few days. But he has been working off the
clock since November, preparing for 10 cases in an extraordinary way -
memorizing the key points of every brief read to him by an aide. APhas
more:
Bernstein, 41, has been blind since birth. After winning the election,
an assistant at his family's Detroit-area law firm began reading
briefs to him for mid-January arguments, including a medical marijuana
case and a labor dispute covering thousands of state employees.
"It would be much easier if I could read and write like everyone else,
but that's not how I was created," Bernstein said. "No question, it
requires a lot more work, but the flip side is it requires you to
operate at the highest level of preparedness. ... This is what I've done
my entire life. This goes all the way back to grade school for me."
Michigan has never had a blind judge on its highest court, and few
other states have. In Missouri, Justice Richard Teitelman has been
legally blind since age 13. Judge David Tatel, who is blind, sits on a
federal appeals court in Washington, D.C.
"Every new justice has to make a transition from whatever life he or
she had before," Chief Justice Robert Young Jr. said. "His will be
different than others, but he's extraordinarily successful and very
driven. You don't enter Ironman competitions without having a steel
backbone."
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