[2] While on sabbatical from Hogan & Hartson, Tatel spent a year as a lecturer at Stanford Law School.

[3] Tatel was nominated by President Bill Clinton on June 20, 1994, to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated by Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

[4] He announced his plans to retire from the bench in September 2023 to return to a law firm where he worked before he became a federal judge.

Tatel rejected the majority's invocation of the "nondelegation doctrine," arguing that the agency's actions were permissible.

In a dissenting opinion, Tatel sided with the EPA, finding that Congress had clearly given the agency authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

[14] Less than four years later, Tatel also wrote the majority opinion in Shelby County v. Holder, again upholding the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights.

[16] The following year, Tatel concurred in part and dissented in part in In Re: Bruce Lindsey, a case involving whether Special Counsel Ken Starr could seek grand jury testimony about Monica Lewinsky from deputy White House counsel Bruce Lindsey.

Tatel argued that presidents should enjoy attorney-client privilege in their communications with White House Counsel.

Tatel agreed with the majority that the First Amendment did not protect Judith Miller in the case, but he wrote separately to argue that federal courts should recognize a "reporter's privilege.

[24][25] Other Issues In June 2017, Tatel found the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act did not prevent the survivors of a Holocaust victim from suing to recover art stolen by Nazi plunderers, over the partial dissent of Senior Judge A. Raymond Randolph.

[26][27] In October 2019, Tatel filed the majority opinion in Trump v. Mazars USA, LLP, finding that the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform had the authority to compel Mazars, via subpoena, to produce documents relating to the personal financial information of President Donald Trump, including several years' worth of income tax returns.

[28] That decision was vacated and remanded, 7–2, by the Supreme Court in an opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts on July 9, 2020.