Justice ReDesigned Podcast

In this episode of Justice ReDesigned, we examine The Illusion of Precedent —a story about executive power, legal deception, congressional backlash, and the one institution political loyalty cannot fully control: the legal profession itself. The episode follows Todd Blanche’s attempt to defend an extraordinary IRS settlement by wrapping it in the language of precedent. But the comparison to the Ob...

Every trial reaches a moment when the evidence has been presented. The witnesses have testified. The arguments have been made. And all that remains is the verdict. Act V is that moment. In the concluding chapter of the five-act adaptation of The Collapse of the DOJ and the Suicide of the Bar , retired Judge Steven Teske steps away from the daily headlines and delivers a closing argument—not agains...

Throughout the first three acts of The Collapse of the DOJ and the Suicide of the Bar , we examined constitutional conflict, institutional decline, and the quiet exodus of experienced government lawyers. But Act IV changes the focus. It is no longer about the Department of Justice. It is no longer about courts. It is no longer about politics. It is about the lawyer standing alone with a decision t...

Illustration created in collaboration with ChatGPT (OpenAI). The artwork is an original editorial illustration that symbolizes the constitutional, institutional, and ethical themes discussed in this essay. It is intended as expressive commentary rather than a depiction of actual events. Throughout this series, we’ve examined controversial prosecutions, ethical conflicts, constitutional breakdowns,...

“The wheels of justice grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine.” For months on The Teske Brief (my YouTube podacast at www.youtube.com/@judge teske), we have examined a quiet, desperate struggle behind the scenes of American power. We predicted that once the temporary shield of executive power inevitably recedes, the independent, state-level bar associations—which do not answer to the Presid...

Author’s Note If you’ve already read my accompanying Justice ReDesigned essay, The Collapse of the DOJ and the Suicide of the Bar, you may notice that this podcast takes a different form. That’s intentional. The essay presents the complete legal and ethical argument as a traditional written analysis. The podcast that follows does something different. Rather than simply reading the essay aloud, I h...

AUTHOR’S NOTE If you’ve already read my accompanying Justice ReDesigned essay, The Collapse of the DOJ and the Suicide of the Bar, you may notice that this podcast takes a different form. That’s intentional. The essay presents the complete legal and ethical argument as a traditional written analysis. The podcast that follows does something different. Rather than simply reading the essay aloud, I h...

In the concluding episode of In Defense of DEI , Steven Teske confronts one of the most seductive—and dangerous—ideas in today’s civil-rights debate: that “colorblindness” is the same thing as equality. Using a recent media controversy involving a student bullied for wearing a MAGA hat, Teske draws a necessary distinction between individual prejudice and systemic discrimination. Bullying and bias...

In this episode of Justice ReDesigned , Steve Teske continues his examination of memory, accountability, and the moral inversion at the heart of the modern backlash against diversity, equity, inclusion, and historical truth. Part One asked whether enslavers and Confederate leaders deserve grace because they were “products of their time.” Part Two asks a different question: What happens when a soci...

In this episode of Justice ReDesigned , retired Judge Steve Teske continues the DEI series with a deeply personal and morally direct examination of what he calls one of the most revealing demands of the current backlash against “wokeness”: the demand for grace—not for the oppressed, but for the oppressor. Titled Grace for the Oppressor? Why the War on “Wokeness” Is a Moral Evasion , this episode c...

In this episode of Justice ReDesigned , retired Judge Steve Teske examines a growing and dangerous inversion in America’s civil rights debate: the claim that civil rights laws, diversity efforts, and inclusion strategies are now forms of discrimination. Titled When Power Claims Victimhood , this episode challenges the narrative that equality has gone too far. Judge Teske argues that civil rights l...

In this episode of Justice ReDesigned , Steve Teske examines what may be the most important development in the DEI debate so far: what happens when organizations stop talking about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion—but continue doing the work. Using Goldman Sachs as a case study, Teske explores the growing disconnect between public rhetoric and operational reality. As legal challenges, political pr...

In this episode of Justice ReDesigned , Steve Teske moves the DEI conversation beyond its most familiar—and most flawed—argument: that diversity increases profits. For years, proponents relied on studies showing correlations between diverse leadership and financial performance. Critics responded with a valid critique: correlation is not causation. But as Teske explains, that debate misses the poin...

We’re taking a short pause from the DEI series for a conversation that reflects the larger purpose of Justice ReDesigned : exploring how systems can be rebuilt to serve people better. In this episode, I interview Judge Geronda Carter of Georgia’s Clayton Judicial Circuit, a jurist whose work demonstrates what meaningful reform looks like when it moves from theory into practice. Too often, justice...

In this episode of Justice ReDesigned, Steve Teske steps back from the legal and economic debates over DEI to examine the word driving much of the conflict: woke. Once a term meaning awareness of injustice, “woke” has evolved into a political weapon—used to dismiss conversations about race, history, and inequality. But Teske argues that the real story is not wokeness itself, but the selective outr...

Please consider subscribing to Justice ReDesigned. It is free when choosing the no-pay option. All articles and podcasts will be delivered directly to your email. Thank you! Host’s Note This podcast is part of an ongoing Justice ReDesigned series examining the legal, economic, and institutional dimensions of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Each installment addresses a different layer of th...

Please consider subscribing to Justice ReDesigned. It is free when choosing the no-pay option. All articles and podcasts will be delivered directly to your email. Thank you! In this episode of Justice ReDesigned , Steve Teske moves beyond rhetoric and into architecture. As political debates swirl around “DEI,” this episode reframes the conversation: inclusion is not about preference or quotas — it...

In this episode of Justice ReDesigned , Steve Teske pulls back the curtain on the modern neutrality movement — and what it looks like when anti-DEI rhetoric runs out of legal arguments and starts policing fonts, museums, and gift shops. From Confederate school names to scrubbing historical exhibits, Teske explores a simple but uncomfortable truth: Neutrality is never passive. It is always a choice...

In this episode of Justice ReDesigned , Judge Steven C. Teske dismantles one of the most seductive ideas in modern political discourse: neutrality. Colorblind policies are often marketed as fair and balanced. Teske argues they are neither. Drawing on Supreme Court precedent and institutional history, he explains why neutrality is not the absence of values — it is a choice about what to see, what t...

In Defense of DEI is not a plea for politeness. It is a rebuttal to distortion. In this episode of Justice ReDesigned , Judge Steven C. Teske dismantles the most common attacks on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion — that it lowers standards, divides institutions, or violates the law. Separating bad implementation from bad faith, he makes the case that properly designed DEI is not racial preference...

In Part II, the focus shifts from the lie of neutrality to the damage it causes. If forgetting history were harmless, the evidence would be neutral. It isn’t. This episode traces how “merit without memory” produces real-world consequences—declining African American enrollment at elite institutions, the laundering of bias through discretion, and the broader economic and democratic costs of exclusio...

What happens when institutions claim to measure “merit” while pretending history never happened? In Part I of Merit Without Memory, Steven Teske dismantles the comforting fiction that neutrality is the same as fairness. Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, many universities and institutions rushed to adopt so-called “race-neutral” approaches—especially...

In this four-part podcast series, Justice ReDesigned sits down with nationally acclaimed diversity trainer and justice reform advocate Pastor Edward L. Palmer Sr.—a powerful voice in the fight against racial and ethnic disparities in America’s juvenile justice and child welfare systems. We explore the backlash against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), the legal and personal consequences of e...

In this four-part podcast series, Justice ReDesigned sits down with nationally acclaimed diversity trainer and justice reform advocate Pastor Edward L. Palmer Sr.—a powerful voice in the fight against racial and ethnic disparities in America’s juvenile justice and child welfare systems. We explore the backlash against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), the legal and personal consequences of e...

In this second installment of “A Conversation with Pastor Edward Palmer on Implicit Bias, DEI Backlash, and the Struggle for True Equity,” we examine the disturbing trend sweeping across public institutions: the suppression of DEI language and initiatives under the guise of neutrality . Pastor Edward Palmer—nationally recognized diversity trainer, veteran, and juvenile justice reformer—joins us to...