Midyear Meeting 2018

Democracy Under Fire

This year’s meeting will focus on the rule of law and civics engagement. Anyone who is interested in how the rule of law failed to prevent the holocaust and the horrible consequences of that failure should attend. Lessons from the past should inform us about the present and the future. If you are interested in or concerned about civics and civics engagement today, you should attend this meeting.

Ann O’Rourke (Weber) and William Frederick Meinecke, Jr.

In the Museum’s Law, Justice, and the Holocaust program, participants seek to critically examine the pressures faced by German jurists under the Nazis. Using legal decrees, judicial opinions, and case law of the period, they study the role of judges in the destruction of democracy and the establishment of the Nazi German state. Judges were among those inside Germany who might have effectively challenged Hitler’s authority, the legitimacy of the Nazi regime, the hundreds of laws that restricted political freedoms and civil rights, and the guarantees of property and security. And yet the overwhelming majority did not. This close scrutiny of the past provides a framework for a debate on the role of the judiciary in the United States today: What is the responsibility of judges to the legal system as a whole? What have been the challenges to a fair and impartial administration of justice in the United States today? What can judges do to ensure that the kinds of failures that led to the Holocaust do not happen here?

Hon. Nancy Gertner (ret.)

Judge Gertner will discuss the role of the judiciary in light of the recent election and divisions within our nation. How does the judiciary fulfill its role when the leaders of our nation attack the courts, judges, and juries? How do judges uphold the role of the third branch of government when the executive or legislative branches denigrate courts who strike down or hold unconstitutional administrative or legislative actions?

Robert D. Putnam

Professor Putnam will be speaking on Social Change and Civic Engagement in America from 1900 to 2020. These years involve some the most dramatic changes in our democracy. In his book Bowling Alone, Professor Putnam argues that the nation has undergone an unprecedented collapse in civic, social, associational, and political life, particularly since the 1960s. In his more recent book, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, Professor Putnam looks at the growing issues of our nation’s inequality of opportunity.