An attendee holds a campaign flyer for Graham Platner, a veteran who was running for the Democratic nomination for the Senate in Maine, during Platner’s town hall in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, April 12, 2026. (Mark Peterson/The New York Times) By THE EDITORIAL BOARD Graham Platner is out. Just months ago, the oyster farmer and Marine combat veteran looked like the answer to the question Democrats keep asking themselves: Where are the candidates who can excite people? Platner, ru

Graham Platner speaks to supporters in Blue Hill, Maine, after winning the Democratic nomination for the Senate on Tuesday night, June 9, 2026. (Sophie Park/The New York Times) By MICHELLE GOLDBERG Hopefully, by the time you read this, Graham Platner will have dropped out of the Senate race in Maine. If he hasn’t, he needs to, immediately. His campaign, which started with such excitement and inspired so many people in Maine, has become a shameful catastrophe. What’s left — be

By BRET STEPHENS In May 1944, Learned Hand delivered a brief but timeless address in New York on “the spirit of liberty.” Freedom, the great 2nd Circuit jurist warned, cannot be safeguarded by constitutions, laws or courts. Nor can there be freedom wherever “men recognize no check upon their freedom” — a road down which it becomes “the possession of only a savage few.” Instead, the judge said, the spirit of liberty lay in a combination of humility, curiosity, generosity and r

By ROSS DOUTHAT The last few times I wrote about unidentified flying objects, in the spring and fall of 2023, there had been a series of curious happenings — reveals and leaks and would-be whistleblowing — that convinced me that some group of people inside our government wanted Americans to believe that the national security state had secret knowledge about UFOs. This was a deliberately circumspect take on an extremely weird situation, which had three notable features. First,

Vice President JD Vance arrives at the Capitol in Washington on Tuesday morning, July 1, 2025, prepared to cast a tiebreaking vote in the Senate on President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and domestic policy bill. (Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times) By LYDIA POLGREEN Journalist Michael Kinsley once defined a political gaffe as when a politician inadvertently speaks the truth. Last week, Vice President JD Vance posted a classic of the form on the social platform X, part of an

As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of its founding, Puerto Rico, too, has cause for celebration, notes contributing STAR columnist Gregorio Igartúa. Puerto Rico — time to celebrate! By GREGORIO IGARTÚA DE LA ROSA Special to The STAR The year 2026 holds great historical significance for our nation, marking the 250th anniversary of its founding in 1775. Given the importance of this event, impactful cultural activities have been organized -- particularly in the cap

The Statue of Liberty in New York, Oct. 29, 2019. (Damon Winter/The New York Times) By THE EDITORIAL BOARD For nearly a century, the Supreme Court has made it difficult for a president to defy the clear text of a law passed by Congress. The court prevented Franklin D. Roosevelt from firing a leader of the Federal Trade Commission in 1935. It stopped the Reagan administration from defying a pollution investigation in 1988. It helped block Barack Obama’s attempt to expand immig

The Supreme Court in Washington, Jan. 30, 2026. (Aleksey Kondratyev/The New York Times) By THE EDITORIAL BOARD For nearly a century, the Supreme Court has made it difficult for a president to defy the clear text of a law passed by Congress. The court prevented Franklin D. Roosevelt from firing a leader of the Federal Trade Commission in 1935. It stopped the Reagan administration from defying a pollution investigation in 1988. It helped block Barack Obama’s attempt to expand i

We, the American citizens residing in Puerto Rico, have lived since 1898 with the nightmare of being part of the United States but without full political rights. Any foreigner who applies for and is granted citizenship acquires all the rights of citizens of the states. So, the question arises: Why, after 128 years, do we in Puerto Rico still not have all the rights of American citizens? We need to legally define where we stand and then evaluate where we are headed. Legally, w

A candlelight vigil for Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul, Minn., on June 18, 2025. (Jenn Ackerman/The New York Times) By TRESSIE McMILLAN COTTOM My mother always told me that the law is whatever the person with the gun says it is. She meant it both literally, in dealing with police stops that are a part of every Black American’s life, and metaphorically, as a basic life lesson on the nature of power