Richard Bernstein officially declared as a judge of Michigan supreme court. He has been working off the clock since November, preparing an extraordinary way for 10 cases, memorizing the key points of every brief read to him by his assistant.
Michigan has never had a blind judge on its highest court. Few courts 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.
Bernstein, 41, is blind by birth. After Bernstein won the election to the bench, an assistant at his family’s Detroit-area law firm began reading briefs to him for mid-January arguments.
‘‘It would be much easier if I could read and write like everyone else, but that’s not how I was created,’’ Bernstein said. It required lot of preparedness, he said.
Bernstein’s background undoubtedly appealed to voters. He has run more than 15 marathons, swimming 2.4 miles with the help of guides, and in 2008 completed a triathlon by riding a bike 112 miles, running 26.2 miles.
In 2012, he made headlines in New York City after being struck by a speeding bicyclist while running in Central Park, a collision that put him in a hospital for weeks. Bernstein is widely known in southeastern Michigan because his family’s personal-injury law firm regularly advertises through electronic media.