When it comes to the faith and health of the American judiciary, no one would likely describe this as “the best of times.” Judges faces personal threats; courts are seen as politicized; and public opinion slumps, in tandem with civic education. But that’s the challenge that faces the last line of democracy, as Benes Aldana, frames it. The idealistic Seattle University, class of 1991, alum is president of the National Judicial College, which tasks itself with addressing these issues. In episode 10 of Formative, we talk about the moral education that informed him when working on detainee cases at Guantanamo Bay after 9/11; the need to create an anti-racist court to address issues of systemic, unconscious bias; and how the Jesuits taught him that relationships and love must be the foundation of any professional aspiration.