Democracy Forum 9/16/22: Checks and Balances: What are They? Are They Working?

Democracy Forum

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Ann Luther, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Maryann Ogonowski, Pam Person, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, Linda Washburn Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics This month: Checks and Balances: What are They? Are They Working? How the three branches of government check each other: executive, judicial, legislative. \ Why did it matter to the Framers, and why does it matter to us? Of what importance is mutual and self-regard among the branches: each branch protecting its own institution and backing up the other branches? Is the public one of the checks — with political consequences creating a limit on extremism? Does it seem to be working right now? Why or why not? Guest/s: Andrew Rudalevige, Chair of the Department of Government and Legal Studies, Thomas Brackett Reed Professor of Government, Bowdoin College Kim Lane Scheppele, Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and the University Center for Human Values To learn more about this topic: Post-ROE, the Supreme Court is on a collision course with Democracy | Vanity Fair August 25, 2022 Opinion | The Supreme Court Has Too Much Power and Liberals Are to Blame – POLITICO, July 27, 2022 Most in new poll say US government needs major reforms, complete overhaul | The Hill, July 13, 2022 The Supreme Court’s Role in the Degradation of U.S. Democracy | CLC, July 13, 2022 Opinion | How the Founders Intended to Check the Supreme Court’s Power – POLITICO, July 3, 2022 How Viktor Orbán Wins | Journal of Democracy, July 2022 Abuses of executive privilege reveal our system of checks and balances is on life support | The Hill October 24, 2021 Executive privilege is killing checks and balances | MichaelLeppert.com October 15, 2021 Checks and balances on war powers — Defense Priorities, April 2, 2021 By Executive Order | Princeton University Press, April 2021 Checks and Balances in a Trump-Era Supreme Court | Brennan Center for Justice, July 10, 2020 Congress Has Lost Its Power Over Trump | The Atlantic, February 4, 2020 The Unconstrained Presidency: Checks and Balances Eroded Long Before Trump | Council on Foreign Relations, August 14, 2018 Congress’s Power over Courts: Jurisdiction Stripping and the Rule of Klein | CSR, August 9, 2018 About the host: Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.

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