The Josh Hammer Report

Josh Hammer

Newsweek Senior Editor-at-Large And Host,
"The Josh Hammer Show"

Welcome back! I was off last week for an awesome eight-day trip out west to Utah and Wyoming (and slivers of Idaho and Montana). Here are some highlights from our last newsletter two weeks ago.

My most recent column focused on the righteous backlash against so-called "diversity, equity, and inclusion" ("DEI") initiatives, which has begun to take off since the U.S. Supreme Court's long-overdue termination last month of affirmative action programs in university admissions. Last week, Stanford Law School DEI Dean Tirien Steinbach, who was at the epicenter of an on-campus brouhaha back in March when she sided with far-left student protesters against U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan, "resigned' (likely under strong pressure). What's more, two powerful letters were sent warning of possible legal action if academic or corporate DEI offices/commissars discriminate whatsoever on the basis of race: 13 Republican state attorneys general sent a powerful missive to the CEOs of all Fortune 100 companies, and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) sent a short but powerful similar letter to 51 of the largest American and global law firms. The Wall Street Journal even reported last week about "the rise and fall of the chief diversity officer" in corporate America. All of this pushback is proper and salutary. American society, and all leading American institutions, must be color-blind to their core. Martin Luther King Jr. had it right when he spoke of the imperatives of color-blindness; by contrast, modern charlatans like the "anti-racist" Ibram X. Kendi have it dead wrong when they veer into noxious racial determinism.

I recorded two podcast episodes since my last newsletter was released. First, I had on the great Chris Rufo, Manhattan Institute senior fellow and City Journal contributing editor, to discuss his new must-read book, America's Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything. Chris is a friend and is simply indispensable to the conservative movement; we had a wide-ranging conversation not merely about his new book but also about our recent experiences visiting Hungary and our mutual support/admiration for Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.). (You can listen to that episode on Apple, Spotify, or here.) Second, I recorded a solo podcast episode (just out this morning) about the state of the 2024 GOP presidential primary, the pushback against DEI, and the State of Israel's judicial reform debate, which finally saw some real action this week when the Knesset (Israel's national legislature) passed a common-sense bill to strip the Supreme Court of Israel of its unfathomable (and anti-democratic!) ability to veto any governmental law, policy, or even cabinet/ministerial appointment on the extraordinarily subjective and vague grounds that the law/policy/appointment is somehow "unreasonable." (You can listen to that episode on Apple, Spotify, or here.)

In terms of other media hits and appearances since our last newsletter: I joined Rita Panahi on Sky News Australia to discuss the pushback against DEI and the latest Biden family misdeeds (among other topics), recorded a CenterClip audio op-ed on the narrow judicial reform bill the Knesset passed earlier this week, joined "John Bachman Now" on Newsmax to discuss the state of the 2024 GOP presidential primary, joined the "Steak for Breakfast Podcast" to discuss the anti-DEI pushback and the state of the 2024 GOP presidential primary, joined "The Tom Woods Show" to discuss the recent pushback against DEI, joined "Centerpoint" on TBN to discuss the latest Biden family misdeeds, joined the Salt Lake City-based "Rod Arquette Show" to discuss the recent anti-DEI pushback, and (as always) co-hosted two of the three most recent productions of the Edmund Burke Foundation's weekly "NatCon Squad" podcast.

Our additional highlighted right-leaning Newsweek op-eds from the past two weeks include selections from Paul du Quenoy, Michael Broyde, David Brog, Richard A. Epstein, and Kristen Waggoner and Erin Hawley.

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Spotlight

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Following Affirmative Action's Demise, Slay the DEI Leviathan

On Thursday, Stanford Law School Dean Jenny Martinez announced that its embattled associate dean for "diversity, equity, and inclusion" (DEI), Tirien Steinbach, has resigned. Steinbach's all but assuredly forced "resignation" followed an outpouring of disgust from Americans revolted by her disgraceful antics during the Stanford Federalist Society student chapter's attempted hosting in March of a speech by U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan, which was constantly disrupted by outlandish student behavior and ultimately canceled. Steinbach's resignation represents a modicum of justice following a grievous wrong. Now, Steinbach will have plenty of time to mull over whether the "juice" of her abetting an obstreperous law school student woke mob was worth the "squeeze" of her eventual dismissal.

Steinbach's overdue "resignation" is the latest domino to fall in a rapid succession of righteous pushbacks against the roving academic and corporate diversitycrat commissars who collectively comprise America's DEI regime. Perhaps not coincidentally, these dominoes have all fallen after last month's landmark vindication of constitutional color-blindness, and defeat for race-conscious affirmative action programs, in the consolidated U.S. Supreme Court cases of Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) v. Harvard College and SFFA v. University of North Carolina. Following the demise of affirmative action at the Court, the next goal for proponents of color-blindness and foes of racial determinism is clear: Slay the DEI Leviathan.

Last Thursday, a coalition of 13 Republican state attorneys general, led by Kansas' Kris Kobach and Tennessee's Jonathan Skrmetti, sent a letter to the CEOs of all Fortune 100 companies "to remind (them) of (their) obligations as ... employer(s) under federal and state law to refrain from discriminating on the basis of race, whether under the label of 'diversity, equity, and inclusion' or otherwise." The attorneys general cite numerous laws, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, to bolster their anodyne contention that racial discrimination in the workplace is "both immoral and illegal." While the Court's opinion in SFFA did not directly touch on Title VII, Justice Neil Gorsuch's concurring opinion correctly noted that Title VI, a sister provision of Title VII, demands the same color-blindness that the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause demands. Naturally, therefore, so too does Title VII.

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