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.

The post Democracy Forum 9/16/22: Checks and Balances: What are They? Are They Working? first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

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 Description, guests and links FMI can be found here 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.

The post Democracy Forum 8/19/22: Libraries: Defenders of Democracy (Originally aired April 15 2022) first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics Taxation without Representation: Should DC be a State? What rights of self-determination do DC residents now enjoy? How are their rights now constrained? What are the obstacles to DC statehood? What is the history? What is the racial justice aspect to this issue? Against the backdrop of Maine’s own struggle for statehood and the Missouri Compromise, why should Maine people care? Anne Anderson, Chair of the League of Women Voters DC Full Rights Committee Chris Myers Asch, Visiting Instructor of History, Colby College, and co-author of the book, Chocolate City, A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation’s Capital To learn more about this topic: League of Women Voters of the District of Columbia – YouTube With Liberty and Justice for All (Except DC) | League of Women Voters, May 2022 The Case for Statehood – DC History Center, with links to other great resources DC Statehood Explained | Brennan Center for Justice, March, 2022 epublicans Used to Back DC Statehood. What Changed? – The Atlantic, David Graham, June, 2021 The Long Fight for DC Statehood – JSTOR Daily, Livia Gershon, February, 2021 When Adding New States Helped the Republicans – The Atlantic, Heather Cox Richardson, September, 2019 Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation’s Capital by Chris Myers Asch and George Derek Musgrove, 2019 On the Road with the DC Statehood Toolkit, League of Women Voters of DC, November 2017 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 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.

The post Democracy Forum 7/15/22: Taxation without Representation: Should DC be a State? first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics Issue: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics Key Discussion Points: The courts as protectors of democracy Judicial philosophy and constitutional interpretation The authority and power of the court The peril of the court being political or even perceived as such Guests: Richard H. Pildes, Sudler Family Professor of Constitutional Law, New York University School of Law Maron Sorenson, Assistant Professor of Government, Dept. Government and Legal Studies, Bowdoin College To learn more about this topic: Decade-long study shows Supreme Court is now further to the ideological right than most Americans | Ash Center, June, 2022 The Supreme Court Is on the Verge of Expanding Second Amendment Gun Rights | Brennan Center for Justice May, 2022 5 justices, all confirmed by senators representing a minority of voters, appear willing to overturn Roe v. Wade | The Conversation, May 2022 The Court and Its Procedures – Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court (2020) : Throughline : NPR, September, 2021 The Authority of the Court and the Peril of Politics, Stephen Breyer, 2021 Nine Reasons that “Originalism” Isn’t Really a Thing for Supreme Court Justices, October, 2020 The Law of Democracy: Legal Structure of the Political Process. Samuel Issacharoff, Pamela S. Karlan, Richard H. Pildes, Nathaniel Persily. ” 5th Edition, 2016. Is the Supreme Court a ‘Majoritarian’ Institution?, Richard Pildes, December, 2010 The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Laurie Fogleman, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Ann Luther, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Maryann Ogonowski, Pam Person, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, Linda Washburn 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.

The post Democracy Forum 6/17/22: The Supreme Court and Democracy first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics Key Discussion Points: Local news and local democracy. What is a “news desert”? Does Maine have them? What happens in towns that have no institutional news coverage? Does it affect self-governance at the local level? Can citizen or grass-roots journalism fill the gap? Even if we have plenty of citizen journalists, do we lose cohesion without an institutional resource that provides a collective understanding? Guests: Penelope Abernathy, visiting professor at the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University Dan MacLeod, Managing Editor, Bangor Daily News Lincoln Millstein, blogs local news at The Quietside Journal To learn more about this topic: Survival of the Fittest: Can Independent News Media Endure in These Times? | Global Engagement at Georgetown University, April, 2022 New Report On The State Of Our Democracy | League of Women Voters 2021 Local news deserts are expanding: Here’s what we’ll lose | Washington Post, November, 2021 Exploiting the local news desert | Editor and Publisher, November 2021 Islander celebrates 20 years of community journalism – Mount Desert Islander, Faith D’Ambroise, November, 2021 Trends and Facts on Newspapers | State of the News Media | Pew Research Center. June, 2021 The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Laurie Fogleman, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Ann Luther, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Maryann Ogonowski, Pam Person, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, Linda Washburn FMI re League of Women Voters of Maine: www.lwvme.org 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.

The post Democracy Forum 5/20/22: The Demise of Local News: What Are We Losing? first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine Key Discussion Points: libraries and democracy privacy protection intellectual freedom and censorship informed citizenry, challenges and threats from book bans to funding Guests: Rich Boulet, Director, Blue Hill Public Library Alexandra Hinrichs, Children’s Author and Middle School Librarian at Leonard Middle School in Old Town Alison Macrina, Founder and Director of the Library Freedom Project Jamie Ritter, Maine State Librarian To learn more about this topic: Book Banning Efforts Surged in 2021. These Titles Were the Most Targeted | New York Times, April 4, 2022 World librarians, archivists rush to save Ukraine’s digital history | The Washington Post, April 8, 2022 Tired of years of budget woes, Ellsworth library director leaving for MDI | BDN, April 5, 2022 Schools nationwide are quietly removing books from their libraries | Washington Post, March 22, 2022 Book bans and the threat of censorship rev up political activism in the suburbs | NPR, March 21, 2022 How this Old Town school handled a request to ban a book on sexual assault | BDN, March 18 2022 Prerecorded on 4/12/2022 using Zoom technology. The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Hannah Cyrus, consulting librarian, Martha Dickinson, Laurie Fogleman, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Ann Luther, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Maryann Ogonowski, Pam Person, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, Linda Washburn FMI re League of Women Voters of Maine: www.lwvme.org 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.

The post Democracy Forum 4/15/22: Libraries: Defenders of Democracy first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine We’ll talk about anger and intimidation in the public sphere, especially in local politics. Where is this coming from? What is it that puts schools and elections in the bull’s eye? What measures should officials take? What can ordinary people do? Can we still have deliberative democracy? Guests: Patti Dubois, Waterville City Clerk and the Legislative Policy Chair for the Maine Town and City Clerks Association. Jordan LaBouff, Associate Professor of Psychology and Honors at the University of Maine. umaine.edu/psychology/jordan-labouff/ Paul Markosian, an Ellsworth business owner and member of the Ellsworth School board. To learn more about this topic: Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower, Brittney Cooper, 2018. Local election officials are exhausted, under threat and thinking about quitting, Politico, March 2022 Whitmer plot underlines growing abuse of women officials | AP News, March 2022 Bill to make interfering with election workers a crime OK’d | AP News, February 2022 Maine teachers and school board members seek legal protection as they face harassment, February 2022 The Role of Racial Resentment in Our Politics | Brennan Center for Justice, February 2022 The Five Minute Fix, Washington Post, January 2022 City School Board threatened with lawsuits over masking policies, January, 2022 Prerecorded on 3/10/2022 using Zoom technology. The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Laurie Fogleman, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Ann Luther, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Maryann Ogonowski, Pam Person, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, Linda Washburn FMI re League of Women Voters of Maine: www.lwvme.org 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.

The post Democracy Forum 3/18/22: Communities on Edge: Threats and Intimidation in the Public Sphere first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine -How Facebook has transformed our political life. It’s not just Facebook, is it? -How has it polarized our political identities? -How has it become so central to our community and political life? -What threats does it pose to democracy? -What did the Facebook Papers tell us? -What are the possible solutions? Guests: Jessica Brandt, policy director for the Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technology Initiative at the Brookings Institution and a fellow in the Foreign Policy program’s Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology. Judith Rosenbaum, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Communication and Journalism at the University of Maine. To learn more about this topic: www.lwvme.org/democracyforum Facebook Has a Superuser-Supremacy Problem – The Atlantic, February, 2022 Opinion | The Platform Accountability and Transparency Act is a small step toward solving our social media woes – The Washington Post Editorial January 2022 Autocracy Is Winning – The Atlantic. Anne Applebaum, December 2021 How to fix social media? Start with independent research, Brookings, December 1, 2021 The internet is a battleground. Will democracies win?, Brookings, December 1, 2021 The Facebook Papers, explained – The Washington Post, October, 2021 Facebook Is an Authoritarian State – The Atlantic, September 2021 How to Put Out Democracy’s Dumpster Fire – The Atlantic, April 2021 The Internet Doesn’t Have to Be Awful – Anne Applebaum, March, 2021 The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power, by Shoshana Zuboff, January. 2019 Political polarization on Facebook, Brookings, May 2015 Prerecorded on 2/15/2022 using Zoom technology. 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 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.

The post Democracy Forum 2/18/22: Facebook and Democracy: Can They Live Together? first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine We’ll talk about the political philosophy and history of public education in America. What is the role of public education in sustaining our fragile republic? How did public education develop and evolve over time? What has been or should be the role of public education in creating a shared civic enterprise? Guests: Doris Santor, Professor of Education at Bowdoin College. Jonathan Zimmerman, Judy and Howard Berkowitz Professor in Education at the Univeristy of Pennsylvania To learn more about this topic: Will US Education Remedy A Half-Century Of Neglecting Civics Education?, Tom Lindsay, Forbes, February 2020 The need for civic education in 21st-century schools, Rebecca Winthrop, Brookings, June 2020 History and Evolution of Public Education in the US, Center on Education Policy, The George Washington University Graduate School of Education and Human Development, 2020 Have We Lost Faith in Public Education? | Perspectives on History | AHA Johann N. Neem, July 2018 Democracy’s Schools: The Rise of Public Education in America, Johann Neem, August 2017 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 Prerecorded on 1/21/2022 using Zoom technology. 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.

The post Democracy Forum 1/21/22: Educating for Democracy: How’s it Working? first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine Freedom of Religion, Freedom from Religion: Politics and Religion in America -What is the constitutional foundation of the separation of church and state? -Why is it important? -Is freedom of religion in the Bill of Rights? How did the doctrine emerge and develop from the prohibition on the establishment of religion? -How is the interpretation and practice affecting modern politics? -What is the intersection of political activism and religious groups, now and in our history? Guests: Mark Brewer, Professor of Political Science and Department Chair, University of Maine Vincent Phillip Muñoz, Tocqueville Associate Professor of Religion & Public Life, Department of Political Science, Concurrent Associate Professor of Law, Notre Dame University To learn more about this topic: Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments, James Madison, presented to the Virginia General Assembly in 1785 In U.S., Far More Support Than Oppose Separation of Church and State, Pew Research Center, October 2021 The Sleeper SCOTUS Case That Threatens the Separation of Church and State, The Atlantic, October 2021 Two Concepts of Religious Liberty: The Natural Rights and Moral Autonomy Approaches to the Free Exercise of Religion, Vincent Phillip Munoz, American Political Science Review, May 2016 Opinion | If they’re going to keep passing religious laws, we’re going to need exemptions, Washington Post, September 2021 The 2020 Census of American Religion, Public Religion Research Institute, July 2021 How ‘In God We Trust’ bills are helping advance a Christian nationalist agenda, The Conversation, July 2021 Relevant No More?: The Catholic/Protestant Divide in American Electoral Politics by Mark D. Brewer, 2003 The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Michael Fisher, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Ann Luther Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Maryann Ogonowski, Pam Person, Leah Taylor, Linda Washburn 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.

The post Democracy Forum 11/19/21: Freedom of Religion, Freedom from Religion: Politics and Religion in America first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.