Cornell Law professor Michael C. Dorf examines the Democratic Senate primary in Maine, where progressive candidate Graham Platner—despite a compelling populist platform—has faced mounting scrutiny over a series of personal controversies including offensive social media posts, a controversial tattoo, and allegations of infidelity and abusive behavior. Professor Dorf argues that, while Platner’s character flaws are genuine cause for concern, Democratic voters can rationally support him in the general election against incumbent Susan Collins, because his flaws—more akin to Bill Clinton’s than Donald Trump’s—do not threaten constitutional democracy and should yield to the practical calculus of a binary electoral choice.

UNLV Boyd School of Law professor Leslie C. Griffin discusses a recent Maine Supreme Judicial Court decision where the majority struck down legislation purporting to extend the statute of limitations for sexual abuse cases, focusing on distinctions between vested rights and remedies. Professor Griffin argues that the dissenting justices correctly pointed out that the legislature’s extension aimed to address the unique nature of sexual abuse disclosure, challenging the notion of vested rights and emphasizing that there is no inherent right to avoid legal consequences for past wrongs.

Illinois law dean and professor Vikram David Amar discusses a legal challenge to Maine’s Ranked-Choice Voting system, filed by a Republican incumbent and three Republican Maine voters following the November 2018 mid-term election. Amar breaks down the crux of the lawsuit while also unpacking the logistics of a rank order voting system like Maine’s. Providing examples of how rank order voting could work in presidential elections, Amar uses illustrations of past election results to highlight how their outcome might have differed under such a voting system while addressing such a system's limitations.