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Why is this blind US Supreme Court judge walking for hours in Dubai
Gulf News
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2/15/2025
Visually impaired judge delivers verdicts from Dubai while walking
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#UAEnews #Dubai #blindjudge
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00:00
We will read the cases that are due for that week.
00:04
So there's 25 cases that are due by Wednesday of each week.
00:08
You can't, you can't make a mistake
00:11
because people only have one chance to appeal.
00:13
That a blind judge is a better judge than a sighted judge.
00:18
This should be the crosswalk, right?
00:39
A staircase.
00:40
There's going to be a stairway.
00:41
Hey Siri, can you text messages?
00:42
Jason Turkish sent a new message.
00:53
Good morning, so my name is Richard Bernstein
00:55
and I'm a justice of the Michigan Supreme Court,
00:59
which is the highest court within the state of Michigan.
01:03
And I have to say, I love the UAE.
01:07
I've had the opportunity to travel all over the world,
01:10
but this is such a special place.
01:13
As a blind person, it is very challenging to travel
01:16
and to do things on your own.
01:18
But the beauty of this country and the beauty of the people
01:22
is that you're never alone.
01:24
I have just become a huge fan of the UAE
01:27
because I have fallen in love with the people,
01:29
for it's the people that allow for me to be independent
01:33
and to be able to go out and experience so much while I'm here.
01:36
Since I'm an appellate court judge, I'm a high court judge,
01:39
the work that I do is all appellate.
01:42
So what that requires is basically every week,
01:46
there are 25 cases that I have to be responsible for.
01:50
So every single week in Lansing, Michigan,
01:54
the justices will gather and we will decide
01:57
which cases we're going to grant leave to
02:00
or which cases we're not going to hear.
02:03
And for all intents purposes, these are people's entire lives
02:07
that are hanging in the balance.
02:09
These are people who in many situations
02:11
have been sentenced to life in prison
02:13
without the possibility of parole.
02:16
Ultimately it's done through research,
02:18
it's done through writing
02:20
and it's done through the transcripts.
02:22
So if there wasn't a pandemic,
02:24
you would be able to be in the courtroom
02:26
being able to do this work.
02:28
But due to the fact that we're currently
02:30
in the middle of the global pandemic,
02:33
nobody is meeting in person.
02:35
My attitude is, well, you might as well use the time wisely.
02:40
You can work from anywhere.
02:41
Why not have the chance to work from here,
02:44
do the work that I have to do
02:46
that is required to be a judge,
02:48
while at the same time have an opportunity to do work here
02:52
to help promote people with disabilities
02:54
and to help change perceptions
02:56
and understandings that people have of the disabled.
02:59
I've had the opportunity, I've done 24 marathons
03:03
and I've done the full Ironman competition.
03:05
Yes, I love athletics.
03:08
Athletics for me gives me so much energy and excitement
03:11
and I'm also a very spiritual person
03:13
and I just believe that it allows for us
03:16
to have a deeper connection with God.
03:18
There are some people whose bodies are very infirmed,
03:21
you know, like my body, you know, because I'm blind,
03:23
you know, it's not as strong as other people.
03:26
But I find that your spirit and your soul
03:31
can allow for you to basically transcend
03:33
the limitations of the body.
03:35
And I have to say, you know, I'm Jewish,
03:39
but I love the Quran.
03:41
And one of the things that the Quran says
03:43
is it says that the body should always be in motion.
03:46
And I love that.
03:47
I mean, the Quran is so wise.
03:49
So what I do when I'm here
03:51
is I wake up every morning very early
03:54
and I've memorized the crescent.
03:56
And what I do is I go down to the crescent,
03:59
I get onto the boardwalk,
04:01
and I walk back and forth and back and forth
04:03
and back and forth.
04:04
I walk from one end to the other end,
04:07
one end to the other end.
04:09
And what I'm doing when I'm walking is I'm thinking.
04:13
I'm thinking about decisions.
04:16
I'm thinking about cases.
04:18
I'm thinking about verdicts.
04:20
I'm thinking about, you know,
04:22
what is gonna be a just and fair and merciful decision.
04:26
I'm thinking about all of these things
04:30
as I'm walking.
04:30
I don't wanna be still.
04:31
If you're sedentary, you're not able to think as well.
04:34
So the way that it works is I basically live off of my phone
04:38
because my phone is my life.
04:40
So what I do is Siri basically will call the people.
04:43
We will read the cases that are due for that week.
04:47
So there's 25 cases that are due by Wednesday of each week.
04:51
We have to know those cases cold.
04:54
You can't make a mistake.
04:56
You can't miss anything.
04:58
You can't not be on your game every single day
05:02
because people only have one chance to appeal.
05:05
And whatever we decide within that appeal
05:08
is the end for that person.
05:10
The general belief that people have,
05:12
if you can't see, you can't be a judge.
05:14
There's 800 judges that report up to your court.
05:18
There's no way that a blind person
05:20
can possibly oversee what 800 judges are doing
05:25
and then make final decisions when you can't even see.
05:28
How do you do it?
05:29
So the way that it works is that ultimately,
05:33
number one is that I would venture to say
05:36
that a blind judge is a better judge than a sighted judge.
05:41
I would make that argument.
05:42
You know what?
05:43
Isn't that the truth?
05:45
Justice is blind.
05:46
What is the greatest distraction?
05:48
It's visual distraction.
05:50
Blind people don't have visual distractions.
05:53
If someone comes in front of you and you can't see them,
05:57
you're not gonna prejudge them
05:58
because you don't know what they look like.
06:00
We are able to sense and understand people's spirits
06:04
because we don't see them on their outer core.
06:07
And if you don't see somebody on the outside,
06:10
that means that you're focusing on basically their spirit
06:13
or their soul, which basically allows for you
06:16
to have a greater appreciation
06:18
or a greater understanding of who they are.
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